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touaille

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Etymology and origin of the French word touaille

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1000s late 11th century, Rashi's glosses More words from the 10th century
Borrowed from
Frankish *thwahlja via Old French
Ultimate origin
Frankish *thwahlja

Pronunciation

Forms

touaille f (plural touailles)[1] Old French tevale (late 11th century), toaille (about 1165); touaille from the late 13th century.[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman spellings include toaille, towaille and towel.[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French toaille, borrowed from Frankish *thwahlja (“towel”).[2][6][4][3] The Frankish word is also found in Latin texts as Medieval Latin duvahila (8th century) and toacla (about 810); compare Old High German dwahilla.[2] Wiktionary reconstructs the Frankish form as *þwahilu (“cloth”).[1] The southern form gave French tavaïolle, a doublet.[2][1]

Cognate with Old Occitan toalha, Catalan tovalla, Spanish toalla, Portuguese toalha and Italian tovaglia.[7] Through Anglo-Norman it passed into English as towel.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rashi's French glosses (end of the 11th century) have tevale for a napkin or tablecloth, and Chrétien de Troyes writes toaille in Erec (1165–70).[2]

Semantic evolution

Through the Middle Ages and until the early 17th century the word named linen cloth put to many uses, above all those of the modern tablecloth and napkin or towel.[2][8] In church use it was an altar cloth or the corporal (Wace, 1160–74).[2] Joinville compared the sea covered with sails to a sea of touailles, and Froissart tells of a man carrying his arm in a sling made of one.[7]

Furetière (1690) records it for a roller towel, the sense Littré gives in the 19th century.[2][3][7] It is now archaic or regional.[2][3] The Anglo-Norman word gave English towel.[5]

Timeline

  • Late 11th century – Tevale appears in Rashi's glosses.[2][3]
  • 1160–74 – Wace uses it for the corporal.[2]
  • 1165–70 – Chrétien de Troyes writes toaille.[2]
  • Late 13th century – The form touaille appears, in Joinville.[3][4]
  • 1690 – Furetière records the sense “roller towel”.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic or regional) A linen cloth used as a towel, napkin or tablecloth.[2][3][1]
  2. (historical, church) An altar cloth; a corporal.[2][1]
  3. (dated) A roller towel, an endless cloth hung on a roller for drying the hands.[2][7][3]
  4. (historical) A woman's headdress made with a cloth wrapped round the head.[2][1]

Usage notes

Littré prescribed a palatal ⟨ll⟩ in this word and rejected the pronunciation ending in /j/;[7] Wiktionary gives /twaj/ and /twɑj/.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 408b
  7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Touaille.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/touaille. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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