verrou

Forms

verrou m (plural verrous)^[1] Old French veruil, veroil, Middle French verroul and verrouil;^[2][3][4] verrou is found from 1387.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French veroil, inherited from Vulgar Latin *verruculum, an alteration of Latin veruculum (“small spit, small pike”), a diminutive of verū (“spit, dart”).^[3][5][4] The doubled ⟨rr⟩ comes from the influence of ferrum (“iron”), and the final -ou from the plural, as in genou and pou.^[3][6][7] Bloch and Wartburg note that the cross with the word for iron happened again in Old Spanish and in Gallo-Romance dialects.^[6][3]

Cognate with Old Occitan verrolh, Portuguese ferrolho and Spanish cerrojo, the last reshaped after cerrar.^[8][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Veruil is first found about 1120 in the Cambridge Psalter;^[2][10] the TLFi's first record is veroil in the 13th-century fabliau Estourmi, for an iron bolt pushed into a catch to keep a door or window shut.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named a sliding bolt that fastens a door.^[4] In Middle French it was also used, in the Latin sense, for a long-handled cutting weapon (1479), a Latinism that did not last.^[4] The 18th century brought verrou de sûreté (about 1780) and tenir sous le verrou “to keep locked up” (1762), which became sous les verrous “in prison” (1823).^[4][3]

From the 19th century it named locking devices in machinery: in rolling mills (1842), on railways (1887) and in firearms (1889); in geology it is a rock bar across a glacial valley (1919).^[3][10]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Veruil appears in the Cambridge Psalter.^[2][10]
• 13th century – Veroil is found in the fabliau Estourmi.^[3]
• 1367 – Verroul is recorded.^[3][4]
• 1387 – Verrou appears in an inventory of the dukes of Burgundy.^[3][4]
• 1479 – It is used for a long-handled weapon.^[4]
• 1636 – Monet gives the spelling verrou.^[2][7]
• 1762 – The Académie records tenir sous le verrou.^[3][4]
• c. 1780 – Verrou de sûreté is recorded.^[3][4]
• 1823 – Boiste records sous les verrous “in prison”.^[3][4]
• 1919 – It is used in geology for a rock bar across a valley.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bolt on a door or window, a metal bar that slides into a catch.^[10][3]
2. Sous les verrous: in prison.^[10][3]
3. (technical) A locking device, as on railway points or the breech of a gun.^[10][3]
4. (geology) A rock bar closing a glacial valley.^[10][3]
5. (military, figurative) A defensive barrier, an obstacle meant to stop an action.^[10]
6. (computing) A lock, mutex.^[1]

Word family

• verrouiller

Related words

• vérin
• fer
• Latin verū

Usage notes

Littré notes that in the 17th century Chifflet wrote verrouil but pronounced it verrou.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 283b
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert