coste

Forms

coste f (oblique plural costes)^[1]

• couste, custe, cowte^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin costa (“rib, side”).^[3][4][5][6] The TLFi and Wiktionary instead call it a borrowing of the Latin anatomical word.^[7][1] Gamillscheg thinks the Latin word already had the transferred sense "side" in Vulgar Latin,^[4] and Bloch and Wartburg place the senses "slope of a hill" and "sea shore" in Latin as well, because Romanian, Italian, Rhaeto-Romance, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese share them, although Latin texts do not show them.^[5] Medieval Latin records the word for a mountain slope and for a basket,^[8] and for the sea shore from the 9th century.^[7] Its Romance cognates include Romanian coastă, Italian costa, Spanish cuesta and Portuguese costa.^[9]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *ko(n/r)stā- and finds the old comparison with Proto-Slavic *kostь (“bone”) unlikely, since the Slavic word probably continues another Indo-European word for "bone".^[10] The DHLF also calls the origin unknown.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEAF's earliest dated reference is Li ver del juïse, a sermon on the Last Judgement in assonanced alexandrines from the Liège region, of the second quarter of the 12th century, where the plural costes occurs.^[11][12][13] The TLFi dates the anatomical sense "rib" from the Roman d'Enéas of about 1160.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the rib the word passed to the side of the body, recorded in Wace's Roman de Rou in 1160–1170,^[7] and to the side of anything, as in coste a coste "side by side" in Guillaume d'Angleterre (1160–1185), which the TLFi gives as the first record of "slope of a hill" as well.^[7][14] Tobler–Lommatzsch also lists "flank", "beside" and "to one side", "hillside" and a basket for fruit,^[15][16] and the AND adds the coast, the bank of a river, a party in a lawsuit, a region and a direction.^[2] Godefroy records a Middle French preposition coste "beside" and a sense "line of descent" in the customs of the Boulonnais.^[17] About 1256 Aldebrandin de Sienne speaks of the costes of lettuce leaves, their ribs.^[7]

The derivative costé took over the sense "side",^[18] while the modern French côte means "rib", "slope" and "coast".^[7] The sense "coast" is recorded in Gascony from 1502.^[7]

Timeline

• 1125–1150 – costes in Li ver del juïse, from the Liège region.^[11][13]
• 1133–1166 – coste in the Charroi de Nîmes.^[19]
• 1155 – the first Anglo-Norman record cited by the AND.^[2]
• c. 1160 – the rib, in the Roman d'Enéas.^[7]
• 1160–1170 – the side of the human body, in Wace's Roman de Rou.^[7]
• 1160–1185 – coste a coste and "slope of a hill" in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[7][14]
• c. 1256 – costes de laitues in Aldebrandin de Sienne's Régime du corps.^[7]
• 1502 – couste "coast" in the registers of Bayonne.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. a rib.^[2][7]
2. the side or flank of the body, between the ribs and the hip.^[2][15]
3. a side of anything; a facet;^[2] (law) a side or party in a lawsuit.^[2]
4. a slope, hillside.^[16][7]
5. the coast; an edge or bank.^[2]
6. a large basket for fruit.^[16][20]
7. a line of descent, lineage.^[17]

Preposition

1. beside, alongside.^[2][17]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word coste 1, first cites it from 1155, and records the spellings cost, couste, custe and cowte, with phrases for "by the side of", "on both sides", "sideways" and "to lie with a woman", and the preposition "alongside".^[2] A separate head, coste 2 "large basket", is first cited from the third quarter of the 12th century.^[20] Middle English borrowed the word as coste,^[21] and English coast meant "rib" in the early 12th century and "margin of the land" from the early 14th.^[22]

Word family

• costé

Descendants

• Middle French coste (→ French côte)^[1]
• Norman côte^[1]
• Walloon coisse^[1]
• Irish cósta (borrowed)^[1]
• Middle Dutch cost (borrowed; → Dutch kust)^[1]
• Middle English coste (borrowed; → English coast)^[1]
• Middle Low German kost (borrowed; → German Küste)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads this word coste 2 and the DEAF coste1,^[15][11] the AND coste 1 and the TLFi côte.^[2][7] The spelling coste also stands for "cost", a noun from the verb coster "to cost", which is Tobler–Lommatzsch's coste 1,^[15][23][24] and for costmary, a plant name from Latin costum (the DEAF's coste2).^[25][26]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. coste
3. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1245
4. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 287
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 201
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. côte
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. costa
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2279
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. costa
11. ^ 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. coste1
12. ^ 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. JuiseR
13. ^ a b Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. JuiseR
14. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
15. ^ a b c d Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:931
16. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:933
17. ^ a b c Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 2:322
18. ^ Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. costé
19. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. CharroiM
20. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. coste 2
21. ^ 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)
22. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
23. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. cost 2
24. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1081
25. ^ 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. coste2
26. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1254