touffe

Forms

touffe f (plural touffes)^[1] Old French tofe, toffe (about 1180).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is of Germanic origin, probably borrowed from Alemannic German *topf (“tuft of hair, forelock”), an old Alemannic form of the same root as Frankish *topp and German Zopf (“braid”).^[4][5][2][6] Bloch and Wartburg explain that the word must come from a German dialect in which the change of /p/ to /pf/ had gone further and faster than that of /t/ to /ts/, as in Alemannic, and that it reached French through the eastern dialects.^[5][2] Wiktionary instead derives it directly from the Frankish word.^[1]

A crossing with a variant of Late Latin tufa (“crest of plumes”) has been suggested as a hypothesis;^[2][7] Meyer-Lübke lists the French word under that Latin form, crossed with the Germanic one,^[8] and Littré derived it from the Latin word itself, a late word found in Vegetius and of Germanic origin.^[9] It is related to toupet.^[4][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1180, as tofe or toffe in the Vie de saint Évroult; the DHLF gives the first sense as a large snowflake, which went out of use.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a dense clump of trees in a wood appears in the 13th century and again from 1564 (Thierry); it is now felt as a literary metaphor.^[2][4] In 1352 touffes de fueillaiges (tufts of foliage) are recorded, and about 1393 the Ménagier de Paris uses it for plants growing close together from the base, the main modern sense.^[4][2]

By analogy it was applied to hair, bristles and threads gathered at the base (1539, Estienne).^[4][2] In slang it came to mean pubic hair (mid-20th century), whence ras la touffe of a very short skirt or dress.^[2] The adjective touffu was derived from it (1549, after an earlier tuffu of 1438).^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1180 – Tofe or toffe in the Vie de saint Évroult.^[3][2]
• 1352 – Touffes de fueillaiges in the royal accounts.^[4]
• c. 1393 – The Ménagier de Paris uses it for a clump of plants.^[4][9]
• 1539 – Estienne records it for a tuft of hair.^[4]
• 1549 – The adjective touffu is recorded.^[2]
• 1564 – Thierry has it for a dense part of a wood.^[4]
• Mid-20th century – Slang use for pubic hair.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tuft or clump of plants, hairs, threads or the like, growing or held close together at the base: une touffe de trèfle.^[10][11][12]
2. (literary) A dense group of trees or shrubs, a thicket.^[11][12][3]
3. A tuft of hair: une touffe de cheveux gris.^[11][10]
4. (slang) Female pubic hair.^[2][1]

Word family

• touffu

Related words

• toupet

Usage notes

A second word touffe (TLFi's touffe²), from Provençal, names a hot, still, heavy state of the air that harms silkworms.^[12][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 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 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. 17, 346b
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)