truelle

Forms

truelle f (plural truelles)^[1] Old French trieule and truele.^[2][3] Walloon trouelle.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French truele, inherited from Late Latin truella (“small skimmer, mason's trowel”), a variant of Classical Latin trulla.^[2][5][4][1] The classical word named a small skimmer, a ladle, a chamber pot and a mason's trowel; it is the diminutive of trua (“ladle, sink”).^[5][6][3] Its origin is uncertain: it may be borrowed from Etruscan, and Varro took it for a Greek word, in which case the simple word might be drawn from the diminutive.^[5]

The vowel /y/ of the French word is irregular: the expected outcome has /u/, as in Walloon trouelle and other northern dialects.^[7][8][2] Bloch and Wartburg think the French word was remade on the Latin one.^[7] The word is only French; Spanish trulla continues the classical form.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1285 the Latin–French glossary Abavus renders trulla by trieule, the mason's trowel.^[2] About 1328 the poem Choses qui faillent en menage has Et la truele et le ciseau, Après tenailles “and the trowel and the chisel, then pincers”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word passed into French for the mason's tool, a triangular or trapezoidal blade with a handle.^[5] By likeness of shape it named a cutting spatula for carving and serving fish (1783) and a painter's knife.^[5][2] Littré also records the figurative la truelle for building and the love of building.^[3]

The derivatives are few and technical: truellée “a trowelful” (1344) and the verb trueller “to spread mortar with a trowel” (1561), which painters used for laying on thick paint (1843).^[5][2]

Timeline

• c. 1285 – Trieule glosses Latin trulla in the Abavus glossary.^[2]
• c. 1328 – Truele appears in Choses qui faillent en menage.^[2][3]
• 1344 – Truellée is recorded.^[5][7]
• 1561 – Trueller is first recorded.^[2][5]
• 1783 – An inventory of the goldsmith Pierre Germain records a fish slice.^[2]
• 1843 – Gautier uses trueller of painting.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trowel, the mason's or plasterer's tool, a steel blade joined to a handle by a bent shank, for spreading mortar or plaster.^[9][2][10]
2. Truelle à poisson: a fish slice, a metal spatula for cutting and serving fish.^[9][10][3]

Word family

• truellée
• trueller

Related words

• Latin trulla

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 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 329b
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)