trame

Forms

trame f (plural trames)^[1] Old French treme and traime (also trainme at Douai);^[2][3] trème was used by weavers until the early 18th century.^[4][3] The Anglo-Norman spellings include trayme and treyme.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French traime, inherited from Latin trāma (“warp, weft, web”).^[2][3][6][7] The modern form with ⟨a⟩ (1549) was remade after the verb tramer.^[2][3][4] The Latin word, a weavers' word recorded from Varro on, comes from trāns (“across”).^[3]

Cognate with Italian trama, Spanish trama and Old Occitan trama.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The 12th-century Glossary of Tours glosses Latin subtegmen with treme, the weft of a fabric.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the threads passed across the warp to make a fabric.^[3][2] Figurative senses appeared early: traime meant “means of living” in Rutebeuf (after 1271), and Guillaume Guiart's ouvrer de foles traimes (1306) meant “to do wrong”.^[2] The image of the threads of life gave trame de la vie (1552, Ronsard), and the sense “plot, scheme” appeared around 1600 (Pasquier's ourdir une tresme).^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg note that Italian and Spanish trama also took the sense “plot, trick”.^[6]

From 1821 trame has also been the regular structure of an organised whole, by the same image as canevas.^[3] Technical senses followed: the tissue or framework of a living body (1764, Charles Bonnet), the screen of photoengraving (1904) and the set of lines that make a television picture (1945).^[2][3]

Timeline

• 12th century – Treme glosses Latin subtegmen in the Glossary of Tours.^[2]
• after 1271 – Rutebeuf uses traime for “means of living”.^[2]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne records the form trame.^[2][9]
• 1552 – Ronsard writes of the trames de ma vie.^[2][8]
• before 1615 – Pasquier uses tresme for a plot.^[2]
• 1764 – Charles Bonnet uses it for the framework of a living body.^[2]
• 1904 – It is a term of photoengraving.^[2]
• 1945 – It is used of the lines of a television picture.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (weaving) The weft, the threads passed across the warp: usé jusqu'à la trame “worn threadbare”.^[10][2]
2. (science) The structure of a network, as in anatomy.^[10][2]
3. (printing) The fine screen placed between the original and the sensitive layer in photoengraving.^[10][2]
4. (television) The set of lines scanned to form a picture.^[10][1]
5. (figurative) The underlying structure of something, such as the plot of a story: la trame d'un roman.^[2][9]
6. (literary) A plot or intrigue laid to do harm.^[3][8]
7. (literary, dated) The course of life: la trame de la vie.^[3][8]

Related words

• tramer
• Latin trāma

References

1. ^ a b c 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 t 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 j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 195a
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert