tabis

Forms

tabis m^[1][2] Middle French atabis (1375), also zatabis (1380) and escabis (1416).^[3][1]

Etymology

Its earlier form is inherited from Middle French atabis, borrowed from Arabic عَتَّابِيّ (ʿattābī, “silk cloth”),^[1][3][4] which the DHLF and Bloch–Wartburg say came into French through Medieval Latin attabi (1295).^[3][4][2] The Arabic word is named after al-ʿAttābiyya, a quarter of Baghdad where the cloth was made;^[1][3][2] Littré adds that the quarter was named after ʿAttāb, a great-grandson of Umayya.^[5] The shorter form arose when l’atabis, with the article, was understood as le tabis.^[3][6]

Cognate with Italian tabì and Spanish tabí.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1375 as atabis, in the inventories of the dukes of Burgundy: “4 draps de soie, apelez atabis” (“four silk cloths, called atabis”).^[1][7] The form tabis appears at the end of the 14th century in Eustache Deschamps: “J'ay draps de soye et tabis” (“I have silk cloths and tabis”).^[1][4][8]

Semantic evolution

It named a precious watered silk, which the DMF describes as moiré silk mixed with cotton.^[7] The word was fashionable with the cloth from the 14th to the 18th century and then became old-fashioned.^[3] Boileau still used it in Le Lutrin: “Où sur l'ouate molle éclate le tabis” (“where the tabis gleams on the soft wadding”).^[9] In the 19th century the TLFi's quotations show it chiefly in furnishings, as in Balzac's Eugénie Grandet (1834).^[1]

From it came the verb tabiser “to give a watered finish to a cloth”, first as the participle tabizé in 1642 and as tabiser in Richelet (1680).^[1]

English borrowed it as tabby in the 1630s, at first for a striped or watered silk taffeta; the striped coat of the tabby cat was named after it by the 1690s.^[10]

Timeline

• 1295 – Medieval Latin attabi is recorded.^[1][3]
• 1375 – Atabis appears in the inventories of the dukes of Burgundy.^[1][7]
• 1380 – The variant zatabis is recorded.^[3]
• Late 14th century – Eustache Deschamps uses the form tabis.^[1][4]
• 1416 – The variant escabis is recorded.^[3]
• 1630s – English borrows it as tabby.^[10]
• 1642 – The participle tabizé appears in Tristan L'Hermite.^[1]
• 1680 – Richelet records the verb tabiser.^[1]
• 18th century – The word falls out of fashion with the cloth.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A fine-grained silk cloth given a watered finish by a calender, used mainly in furnishing and bookbinding.^[1][11][5]

Word family

• tabiser

Related words

• English tabby

Usage notes

Littré notes that the final s is not pronounced, even before a vowel, as Chifflet's grammar already said.^[5] The Grand Robert gives the pronunciation [tabi].^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
2. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 12b
7. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
8. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner
9. ^ Pihan, A. P. (1866), Glossaire des mots français tirés de l'arabe, du persan et du turc, Paris: Challamel
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse