verrue

Forms

verrue f (plural verrues)^[1] Old French also had the variant berrue (about 1220).^[2][3] Anglo-Norman spellings include verue and verou.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French verrue, inherited from Latin verrūca (“height, excrescence, wart, slight flaw”).^[5][6][1] The Latin word meant a height or knob before it was specialised for a growth on the skin.^[2] Rey connects it with an Indo-European root also found in Old Church Slavonic and Sanskrit words for “above” and “summit”.^[2]

Cognate with Italian verruca, Spanish verruga, Catalan verruga and Portuguese verruga.^[2][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is a 13th-century gloss quoted in Godefroy's Complément, for a small growth on the surface of the skin, a wart.^[5] The GLLF dates the word to the 12th century, in the Chevalier aux deux épées,^[9] and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from the late 12th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Plants once used to cure warts, such as celandine and heliotrope, were called herbe aux verrues (1694).^[2][10]

Montaigne used the word figuratively in 1588 for something that disfigures,^[5][2] and this literary sense is now used especially of a building that spoils a landscape or a town.^[2][9] By likeness of shape it was applied to a rough knob on a shell (1752) and on bark (1765),^[2] and in 1876 Larousse records it for a skin tumour of young farm animals.^[9]

In the dialects of the Centre, the East and the North verrue had to compete with poireau, and in the East, the West and the South-West with fic, from Latin “ficus”, “fig”.^[5][8]

Timeline

• c. 1220 – The variant berrue is recorded.^[2][3]
• 13th century – A gloss uses verrue for a wart.^[5]
• 16th century – Paré pairs verrues with porreaux.^[7]
• 1588 – Montaigne uses it figuratively for a disfiguring flaw.^[5][2]
• 1694 – Herbe aux verrues names plants used against warts.^[2]
• 1752 – Used of a rough knob on a shell.^[2]
• 1765 – Used of a knob on bark.^[2]
• 1876 – Larousse records it for a tumour of young animals.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wart, a small horny growth of the skin, usually caused by a virus, on the face, hands or feet.^[10][5]
2. Verrue plantaire: a plantar wart, on the sole of the foot.^[10][5]
3. (veterinary) A skin tumour or papilloma of young animals such as foals and heifers.^[9]
4. (figurative, literary) Something that disfigures, an eyesore, especially a building that spoils a town or landscape.^[10][9][2]
5. (botany) A small rough protuberance.^[7]

Word family

• verruqueux

Related words

• poireau
• Latin verrūca

Usage notes

Herbe aux verrues is a name of celandine and of heliotrope, plants thought to cure warts.^[10][7] In familiar French poireau is also used for a wart.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 305b
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert