chaufer

Forms

chaufer (present participle chaufant; past participle chaufé; first-person singular present chauf)^[1]

• chalfer, chauver, chauffer, chaufier, choffer, cauffer^[1][2][3]

Choffer is frequent in the Middle French texts, and cauffer keeps the northern /k/.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *calfō, a shortened form of Latin calefaciō (“to make warm”).^[1][4][5][6] The Latin verb is a compound of caleō (“to be warm”) and faciō (“to make”).^[7] Gamillscheg in his first edition rejects a derivation from a phrase with calidus (“warm”).^[8] The REW finds the relation of the Romance ending to the Latin verb not quite clear, and lists the cognate Old Occitan calfar.^[9]

Bloch and Wartburg note that the verb is used in all the Gallo-Romance dialects, except part of the Franco-Provençal area and the far south-east, which have a type corresponding to French échauder.^[6] The FEW lists Picard and Norman forms with initial /k/ and many eastern dialect forms.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEAF's earliest record is chaufier in the Clermont Passion, about 1000, in the sense “to make hot”.^[3][10] The TLFi dates the intransitive “to become hot” from Wace's Saint Nicholas, about 1150.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Chrétien de Troyes uses the transitive verb for heating bath water and, in Cligès, figuratively of love: Amors li a chaufé .i. baing Qui mout l'eschaufe et mout li nuist “love has heated a bath for him that greatly inflames him and greatly harms him”.^[13][11] The AND adds the reflexive “to warm oneself” and the past participle “heated, excited”, of anger.^[14] The modern French chauffer keeps both the transitive and the intransitive uses; its figurative senses date from the 17th century.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – chaufier “to make hot” in the Clermont Passion.^[3][10]
• c. 1150 – “to become hot” in Wace's Saint Nicholas.^[11][12]
• mid-12th century – the first insular record cited by the AND.^[14]
• 1176 – figurative use in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès.^[13][11]
• c. 1180 – heating baths in Chrétien's Perceval.^[13][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. to heat, make warm.^[13][14]
2. (intransitive) to become hot.^[11][14]
3. (reflexive) to warm oneself.^[14]
4. to burn with embarrassment;^[14] (past participle) heated, excited by anger.^[14]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the verb chaufer, first cites it from the middle of the 12th century, and records among its insular senses heating something up on a fire and, of the humours, growing hotter.^[14] The AND also has chaufour, a vessel for heating water or a warming-pan, from 1301.^[16] Middle English took the verb as chaufen, first “to be provoked, grow excited” about 1300 and “to make warm” in the late 14th century, which became the English word chafe.^[17][18]

Descendants

• Middle French chauffer (→ French chauffer)^[1]
• Norman caûffer^[1]
• Middle English chaufen (borrowed; → English chafe, Scots chaff)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DÉCT and the AND head the verb chaufer, Godefroy's Complément and the DMF chauffer.^{[19][13][14][20]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
3. ^ a b c Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. chaufer
4. ^ a b c Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:78
5. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 234
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 165
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. calefaciō
8. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1926–1928), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 245
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1507
10. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. PassionA
11. ^ a b c d e f 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
12. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. WaceNicD
13. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. chaufer
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. chaufer
15. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. chauffer
16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. chaufour
17. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
18. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:330
20. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. chauffer