trèfle

Forms

trèfle m (plural trèfles)^[1] Older spellings tresfle (1314) and treffle (1450), the latter in use until the 18th century;^[2][3] trèfle is recorded from 1530.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French tresfle, borrowed from Ancient Greek τρίφυλλον (tríphullon, “clover”), the neuter, used as a noun, of an adjective meaning “three-leaved”.^[4][2][3] The Robert dictionaries and Rey say that it came from the Greek spoken at Marseille,^[5][2] and Bloch and Wartburg likewise put the word down to the Greeks of Marseille.^[6] The same Greek word is behind Catalan trèvol, Spanish trébol, Portuguese trevo and Provençal treoule, while Italian trifoglio and Old Occitan trefueill (about 1210) continue Latin trifolium, which Latin modelled on the Greek word with folium (“leaf”).^[2][6]

Wiktionary gives a second view: the Old French word came through Vulgar Latin *trifolum from the Latin word, or else from the Greek directly.^[1] Littré had derived it from the Latin word alone.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as tresfle in 1314, in Henri de Mondeville's surgery, as the name of the plant, clover.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Named first as a fodder plant, the word was soon qualified to name its varieties, such as trèfle des prés (1564) and trèfle rampant (1779), and other plants with three leaflets, such as trèfle d'eau “bogbean” (1762).^[2][4] It also named the leaf itself: the treffle a quatre fueilles, the four-leaved clover, appears in the mid-15th-century Évangiles des quenouilles, which promises that whoever finds one will be happy and rich all their life.^[4][7] The old phrase chercher le trèfle à quatre feuilles meant “to look for the impossible” in the 17th century.^[2]

By extension the word named anything shaped like the leaf: the black suit of clubs in cards (Rabelais, 1552) and a card of that suit (Molière, 1661),^[4][2] a heraldic charge (1681), an ornament in architecture (1694), the three-part epaulette of military bandsmen and gendarmes (1831) and, in the 20th century, a cloverleaf junction of major roads (1964).^[4][2] In slang it meant tobacco from 1725 until about the 1920s, and money from 1864, a sense Rey explains from the older slang use of blé “wheat” for money.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1314 – Tresfle appears in Henri de Mondeville's surgery as the name of the plant.^[4]
• Mid-15th century – The Évangiles des quenouilles mention the four-leaved clover.^[4][2]
• 1530 – The spelling trèfle is recorded.^[2][5]
• 1552 – Rabelais uses it for the suit of clubs.^[4]
• 1661 – Molière uses it for a card of that suit.^[4]
• 1681 – Ménestrier records it in heraldry.^[4]
• 1694 – Thomas Corneille records it as an architectural ornament.^[4][3]
• 1725 – It means tobacco in slang.^[4][2]
• 1762 – The Académie records trèfle d'eau.^[4]
• 1831 – It names an epaulette of bandsmen and gendarmes.^[4]
• 1864 – It means money in slang.^[4][2]
• 1964 – It names a cloverleaf road junction.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Clover, a plant of the pea family with leaves of three leaflets, grown as fodder: trèfle blanc, trèfle des prés.^[8][9]
2. A leaf of this plant, especially in trèfle à quatre feuilles, the four-leaved clover held to bring luck.^[8][4]
3. (card games) Clubs, one of the two black suits, or a card of that suit.^[4][1]
4. (architecture, heraldry) A trefoil, an ornament or charge shaped like a three-lobed leaf.^[4][9][1]
5. An object or motif of that shape.^[9]
6. (roads) A cloverleaf interchange.^[4][10]
7. (slang) Money.^[9][2]

Word family

• tréflé
• tréflière

Related words

• Latin trifolium

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 o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e 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 t u v 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF