vair

Forms

vair m (plural vairs)^[1] Old French vair and veir;^[1][2][3] Anglo-Norman also ver and veer.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French vair, inherited from Latin varius (“spotted, variegated, mottled”), from the masculine accusative varium.^[4][1][5][6] Rey notes that the origin of the Latin word is unclear and that it has been connected with varus (“pimple”).^[7]

Cognate with Old Occitan vair and Italian vaio.^[8][9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) it is an adjective for eyes of a bright, lively grey-blue: vairs out les oilz.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective named an indefinite eye colour, between grey-green and grey-blue, and in Old French also meant “variegated” of cloth or fur (1155), “gleaming” of steel and “fickle” of a person.^[7][4] It went out of use in the 15th century.^[5]

As a noun it named from the 12th century the grey and white fur of the petit-gris squirrel, worn by kings and dignitaries, and garments lined with it.^[4][7] By Perrault's time this sense was forgotten: he wrote pantoufle de verre in Cendrillon (1697), and pantoufle de vair appears in Balzac in 1841.^[4][7] In heraldry, by analogy, it names a fur made of small bell-shaped pieces of azure and argent.^[7][10] English vair was borrowed from the Old French noun about 1300.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The adjective is used of eyes in the Chanson de Roland.^[4]
• c. 1140 – Gaimar uses veir for squirrel fur.^[4][2]
• 1155 – Wace uses the adjective for “variegated”.^[4]
• c. 1180 – A heraldic use in Thomas's Tristan.^[4][7]
• c. 1300 – English borrows the word.^[11]
• 1697 – Perrault writes pantoufles de verre in Cendrillon.^[4][7]
• 1841 – Pantoufle de vair in Balzac.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) The grey and white fur of the petit-gris squirrel, reserved in the Middle Ages for kings and high dignitaries.^[4][10][8]
2. (heraldry) One of the two heraldic furs, made of small bell-shaped pieces of argent and azur set point to point in horizontal rows.^[10][8][2]

Word family

• vairon

Related words

• varier
• Latin varius
• English vair

Usage notes

Pantoufle de vair is the reading of later writers for the slipper of Cinderella, which Perrault called pantoufle de verre.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 182b
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com