verrat

Forms

verrat m (plural verrats)^[1] Old French had the simple noun ver “boar”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Old French ver (“boar, wild boar”), with the suffix -at.^[2][4][5] The Old French noun is from Latin verrēs (“boar”).^[2][1][6] According to the TLFi, the suffixed form was probably made to keep the word apart from its Old French homonym meaning “worm”, from Latin vermis.^[2] Rey notes that the Latin word has no known etymology: in Indo-European the names of male animals were often new or of narrow spread.^[3]

Littré lists the dialect forms Norman verrot (Guernsey) and Walloon verâ, with Occitan verrat and Spanish verraco.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Verrat is first recorded in 1334 in a document from Saint-Jean-d'Angély, meaning a boar.^[2][4] The older ver is found in the Oxford Psalter in the first half of the 12th century (li vers de la selve, rendering Latin aper de silva).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Verrat became the technical word for the uncastrated male pig kept for breeding, beside the everyday porc and cochon and the female truie.^[3] It also served in comparisons of lust and fury: Cotgrave records paillard comme un verrat,^[7] and Littré has il écume comme un verrat of a man in a rage.^[7] Littré also gives verrat de mer as a popular name of a Mediterranean fish, the boarfish.^[7]

Timeline

• first half of the 12th century – Old French ver “boar” in the Oxford Psalter.^[2]
• 1334 – Verrat in a document from Saint-Jean-d'Angély.^[2][4]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records paillard comme un verrat.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An uncastrated male pig kept for breeding, a boar.^[5][2]

Related words

• porc
• truie
• Latin verrēs

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 304a
7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette