souris

Forms

souris f (invariable)^[1] Old French soriz (about 1160–1175), suriz (about 1180) and soris; the remade form souris dates from about 1220, and soriz, soris are found until 1715.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French soriz, inherited from Vulgar Latin *sōrīcem, the accusative of *sōrix,^[4][5][6][1] an alteration of classical Latin sōrex (“shrew, mouse”).^[4][2][3] The Latin word may be onomatopoeic;^[2][7] Rey also compares it with Ancient Greek ὕραξ (húrax) and tentatively traces it to a root Proto-Indo-European *swer- “to make a sound”, also seen in susurrus (“whisper”), and thinks that both words may first have named small animals with a shrill cry such as the shrew.^[2][7] The usual Latin word for the mouse, mūs, survives in derived forms in the south-west of France.^[2][5]

The word is usual only in the north of the Gallo-Romance area; south of a line from the mouth of the Gironde to northern Lorraine words of the type rat prevail.^[5] Cognate with Old Occitan soritz, Italian sorice and Friulian soris.^[5][7][8] The computing sense is a semantic loan from English mouse.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as soriz in Benoît's Chronique des ducs de Normandie (about 1175), for the small rodent.^[4][3] About 1200 the Lai d'Ignauré has the proverb soris ki n'a c'un trau poi dure “a mouse with only one hole does not last long”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

From the first records the word entered figurative phrases built on the mouse's smallness and discretion and on the pairing of cat and mouse; the old proverb about the mouse with one hole became souris qui n'a qu'un trou est bientôt prise (1690).^[2] La Fontaine spread la montagne accouche d'une souris (1668), for a result far below expectations, and on entendrait trotter une souris “there is total silence” is recorded in 1640.^[2][4] With a qualifier it named other small mammals: souris blanche (16th century), souris d'eau (1812) for the shrew, souris de montagne (1768) for the lemming.^[2][4]

Like Latin mūs and mūsculus, it named fleshy parts of the body, the calf (13th century) and, since 1694, the muscle at the end of a leg of mutton.^[2][4][5] In the 17th century it was a ribbon bow in women's hair (1689), and gris de souris (1660) is the light grey of the mouse's coat.^[2] Of people, it meant a lawyer (1611, Cotgrave), a “devourer of lawsuits”, and a woman of easy virtue (1905); souris d'hôtel (1907) is a woman who steals from hotel rooms, and since 1938 souris has been a familiar word for a young woman, without disparagement.^[2][4] The computer mouse is a calque of American English mouse.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – Soriz in Benoît's Chronique des ducs de Normandie.^[4]
• c. 1200 – The proverb about a mouse with only one hole, in the Lai d'Ignauré.^[4]
• c. 1220 – The remade form souris appears.^[2][3]
• 13th century – Used for the calf of the leg.^[4][2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records souris du palais “lawyer”.^[4]
• 1640 – On entendroit une souris trotter is recorded by Oudin.^[4]
• 1668 – La Fontaine's la montagne accouche d'une souris.^[2]
• 1694 – The Académie records the muscle of the leg of mutton.^[4]
• 1715 – Last record of the old form soris.^[2]
• 1907 – Souris d'hôtel appears in the Larousse pour tous.^[4]
• 1938 – Familiar use for a young woman.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mouse, a small grey rodent related to the rat, especially the house mouse.^[9][10]
2. Gris souris: a light grey, also used as an adjective for this colour.^[9][10]
3. (familiar) A young woman, a girl.^[9][10]
4. The fleshy muscle at the end of a leg of lamb or mutton.^[9][10]
5. (computing) A computer mouse, the pointing device moved by hand.^[9][10]
6. Souris d'hôtel: a woman who slips into hotel rooms to steal.^[10][4]
7. Souris de mer: the common name of a small bony sea fish.^[10][4]

Word family

• chauve-souris
• souriceau
• souricier
• souricière

Related words

• Latin sōrex

Usage notes

A separate masculine noun souris “smile” (un doux souris), now archaic or literary, is formed from sourire after ris; it is recorded as soubzris about 1480 and as souris in Ronsard in 1556.^[4][11][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 110b
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert