verre

Pronunciation

• IPA: /vɛʁ/^[1]

Forms

verre m (plural verres)^[1] Old French voirre (about 1174), also voarre and vouerre until the 16th century, verre from 1160–1174.^[2][3][4] In the 16th century Bèze recommended voirre and blamed the Parisian voarre.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French voirre, inherited from Latin vitrum (“glass; woad”).^{[3][2][4][6][1]} The regular outcome in central French was “voir(r)e”, “verre” was remade after its derivatives, or arose from the hesitation between /e/ and /we/ in Paris at that time, as in “craie” beside “croire”.^[4][2][1] Latin “vitrum” also named the dye plant woad, from the greenish colour of ancient glass; it is not recorded before the end of the Republic.^[2] The learned vitre is a doublet.^[1]

Cognate with Italian vetro, Occitan veire, Catalan vidre and Spanish vidrio, the last from a popular “*vitrium”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Wace's Roman de Rou (1160–1174), in vaissel de verre “a glass vessel”, meaning the transparent substance, Chrétien de Troyes has veoir par mi le voirre “to see through the glass”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By metonymy it named a stained-glass window (second quarter of the 13th century), a drinking vessel (1306, Joinville's vouerre) and, from 1636, a glassful: boire dix verres de vin.^[3][2] Lenses followed: voire perspective “spyglass” (1599) and verre de lunette (1690); in the plural verres are spectacles.^[3] From the early 14th century it also named vitreous minerals, as voirre de plomb (1309).^[2] Prendre un verre “to have a drink” and un petit verre “a dram” are modern familiar uses.^[7] Derivatives include verrière (about 1165), verrier (1230), verrerie (13th century) and verroterie (1657).^[4]

Timeline

• 1160–1174 – Vaissel de verre, in Wace.^[3]
• c. 1165 – Verrière.^[4]
• 1230 – Verrier.^[4]
• 2nd quarter of the 13th century – A stained-glass window.^[3]
• 1306 – A drinking glass, in Joinville.^[3]
• 1599 – Voire perspective “spyglass”.^[3]
• 1636 – A glassful.^[3]
• 1657 – Verroterie.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. glass, the material: une bouteille en verre; a symbol of fragility.^[1]
2. A drinking glass; its contents: un verre d'eau, prendre un verre: to have a drink.^[1][7]
3. A lens: verres de contact, (plural) spectacles.^[1][3]
4. A pane or sheet of glass: sous verre.^[1]

Word family

• sous-verre
• verrerie
• verrier
• verrière
• verroterie

Related words

• vitre
• vitrail
• vitreux
• Latin vitrum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 565b
7. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF