Etymologically
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travail

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /tʁa.vaj/[1]

Forms

travail m (plural travaux or travails)[1] Old French travail beside the subject case travauz; the plural travaux continues travauz.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French travail, formed from the verb travailler, from *tripāliō (“to torture”), derived from tripālium, also “trepalium” (582), an instrument of torture, literally “made of three stakes”, from trēs (“three”) and pālus (“stake”).[3][4][5][6][1] Pierre Guiraud saw a crossing of “trepalium”, which also named a frame for shoeing oxen, with a Romance *trabiculō, from trabicula (“small beam”).[7] Littré instead derived it from Old Occitan “travar” “to fetter”, from Latin trabs (“beam”).[2]

The frame used by farriers to hold horses and oxen still has the name “travail” (plural “travails”), directly from the Late Latin word (about 1210).[4][8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Lois de Guillaume (about 1130) in the sense “trouble one takes, effort”, Wace (1130–1140) has traval d'enfant, the pains of childbirth, and Gaimar (about 1140) uses it for “torment”.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the word meant suffering, torment and weariness, as the verb meant “to torture, make suffer”; the sense “labour of childbirth” survives in femme en travail.[3][7] In the mid-13th century it was used for the toil of craftsmen, and in Middle French the idea of productive effort gained over that of pain.[3][7] It named the result of an activity in 1362–1363, the quality of workmanship in 1676 (Félibien) and, from 1600, the daily work that earns a living.[3]

The plural took its own senses: heroic deeds (1611, les travaux d'Hercule), research (1616), travaux publics (1727) and travaux forcés (1795, after Voltaire's travail forcé, 1768).[3] In 1769 it was applied to a slow change within matter, and in physics to the work of a force (1829, Coriolis).[3][9] Travail, famille, patrie was the motto of the Vichy French State.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1130 – “Effort, trouble taken” in the Lois de Guillaume.[3]
  • 1130–1140 – Traval d'enfant “labour pains” in Wace.[3]
  • c. 1140 – “Torment”, in Gaimar.[3]
  • c. 1210 – Travail, the farrier's frame.[4][5]
  • Mid-13th century – The toil of a craft.[3]
  • 1600 – Daily work as a living.[3]
  • 1727 – Travaux publics.[3]
  • 1795 – Travaux forcés in the Penal Code.[3]
  • 1829 – The work of a force, in Coriolis.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. work, effort spent to produce something: le travail manuel.[1][8]
  2. A job, employment; one's workplace: chercher du travail, aller au travail.[1]
  3. A piece of work and the way it is done: un travail soigné.[3]
  4. (plural) Works, construction or repair: travaux publics; research: les travaux d'un savant.[3]
  5. Slow action or change: le travail du temps.[3]
  6. (physics) The work done by a force.[9]
  7. (medicine) labour, the process of childbirth: être en travail.[3][7]
  8. (plural travails) A frame for holding horses or oxen while they are shod.[5][8]

Word family

  • travailliste
  • entraver

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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
  4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 291b
  7. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF