travailler

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʁa.va.je/^[1]

Forms

travailler^[1] Old French travaillier, traveillier, travailler from the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French travaillier (“to torment, make suffer”), inherited from Vulgar Latin *tripāliō (“to torture”), formed on tripālium, the name of an instrument of torture, from tripālis (“having three stakes”).^{[4][5][6][7][1]} Pierre Guiraud proposed a crossing with a Romance “*trabiculāre”, from trabēcula (“small beam”), the rack being a frame of beams.^[5]

Cognate with Spanish trabajar, which took the sense “to work” from French, Portuguese trabalhar and Old Occitan “trebalhar” “to torment”.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1100 the Chanson de Roland uses it for tormenting a person: Par tantes teres ad sun cors traveillet “he has wearied his body in so many lands”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Until the 16th century, and still in classical French, travailler meant “to make suffer, torment”; intransitively, “to suffer”, especially of a woman in labour (about 1165).^[6][5][4] Se travailler meant “to make great efforts” (about 1165), and travailler a material, to work it (about 1200, of flax).^[4][5]

From the 16th century the idea of productive effort won: “to work for one's living” (1534), faire travailler “to employ” (1581).^[4] It took over the place of ouvrer, whose forms clashed with those of ouvrir.^[4][6] Money travaille from 1675, and wood travaille (warps) from 1690.^[4] The sense “to torment” survives faintly in ça le travaille “it bothers him”.^[5][8] Slang travailler du chapeau “to be crazy” dates from 1932.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Travaillier “to torment” in the Chanson de Roland.^[4]
• c. 1165 – Of a woman in labour, se travailler “to strive”.^[4]
• c. 1200 – To work a material (flax).^[4]
• 1534 – “To work for one's living”.^[4]
• 1552 – Travailleur, a worker.^[6]
• 1675 – Of money earning interest.^[4]
• 1690 – Of wood that warps.^[4]
• 1932 – Travailler du chapeau.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To work: to have a job, to make an effort: travailler dans une banque, travailler dur.^[1][4]
2. To study, practise: travailler son piano, travailler les maths.^[1][4]
3. To work (a material), shape: travailler le bois; to polish (a style).^[4][5]
4. Of wood, to warp; of wine, to ferment; of money, to earn interest.^[4][9]
5. To bother, preoccupy: cette affaire le travaille.^[8][10]
6. Travailler à: to work at, strive for: travailler à la paix.^[4]

Word family

• travailleur
• retravailler

Related words

• travail
• travailliste
• ouvrer
• English travel

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e 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, 288a
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)