treuil

Forms

treuil m (plural treuils)^[1] Old French troil (1282) and truil (13th century), then trueil (1376, 1394); treuil from the 14th century.^[2][3][4] Cotgrave has treuil in 1611.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French truil (“winepress”), inherited from Latin torculum (“press, winepress”), which became Vulgar Latin *troclum in popular speech by metathesis of the /r/.^[2][6] Wiktionary gives the Vulgar Latin form as *troculum.^[1] The Latin word is derived from torqueō (“to twist, turn”), and also meant the place where the press stood.^[3][4][5] Compare Medieval Latin truellum in a document of 928 from the Occitan area and Old Occitan troil (“winepress”) in 1182.^[2]

Cognate with Italian torchio, Catalan trull and trolh,^[7][8][3] and with dialect forms such as the Burgundian treu (“winepress”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as truil in 1282, in a document from the archives of the Jura, meaning a winepress.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “winepress” has lived on in many dialects, as in Italian torchio and Old Occitan.^[3][8] The lifting machine is recorded from 1376, in the Livres du roy Modus.^[2][3] The TLFi and Bloch and Wartburg explain the shift by the likeness between the horizontal beam of the press and that of the winch;^[2][8] the DHLF and the Petit Robert relate it to a kind of press worked by a rope that wound round a cylinder.^[3][10] Littré quotes 14th-century manche de treulle d'un puis, the handle of a well's windlass.^[9]

The verb treuiller first existed as troiller “to press (grapes)” (1256); the modern treuiller, “to haul with a winch”, is a new formation, in dictionaries from 1964.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1282 – Truil “winepress” in a document from the Jura.^[2]
• 1376 – Trueil is used for a machine for raising loads.^[2][3]
• 1394 – Trueil in a document from La Rochelle.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the form treuil.^[5][10]
• 1964 – Treuil de forage “drilling winch” appears in the Larousse.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A winch or windlass: a horizontal drum turned by a crank or a motor, round which a rope, cable or chain winds to haul or lift loads: un treuil électrique, un treuil à main.^[2][10][9]
2. (dated or regional) A winepress.^[10][3]

Word family

• treuiller
• treuillage

Related words

• tordre
• Latin torculum

Usage notes

Littré distinguishes the treuil, with a horizontal drum, from the cabestan (capstan), whose drum is vertical.^[9]

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 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 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. ^ 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, 39a
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert