tricherie

Forms

tricherie f (plural tricheries)^[1] Old French also trecherie and triquerie.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman trescherie, trycherie.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from French tricher + -erie.^[4][5][6][7] The verb tricher, Old French trichier beside trechier, comes from Late Latin *triccō, an expressive form with a doubled consonant of Latin trīcor (“to make difficulties, quibble”).^[6][4] Littré compares Old Occitan tricharia and Italian treccheria.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1120, in the Cambridge Psalter, meaning deceit or a lie.^[4][5] A 12th-century psalter has E nen est en sun espirit tricherie (“and there is no deceit in his spirit”).^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle French it meant fraud, deceit and treachery in general, and until the classical period also “lie”.^[8][3] Beaumanoir in the 13th century defined triquerie as anything done knowingly through a lie that one tries to pass off as true.^[2]

Following the verb, it was narrowed to cheating at play, a sense Furetière records in 1690.^[4][8] In modern use it is cheating in an examination or game, any act of bad faith, and the hiding of a defect or the making of an illusion.^[4][9] The older triche became familiar and childish, while tricherie stayed the standard word.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – First record, “deceit, lie”, in the Cambridge Psalter.^[4]
• 13th century – Beaumanoir uses the form triquerie.^[2]
• 15th century – Villon complains of a penalty adjudged par tricherie.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “cheating at play”.^[4][10]
• 1932 – The synonym trichage appears in Céline.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cheating at a game, or in an examination or competition.^[9][4]
2. Any deceit or act of bad faith.^[9][10][2]
3. The act of hiding a defect or creating an illusion.^[9]

Related words

• tricher
• tricheur
• triche
• trichage

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/ii, 260a
8. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse