piece

Forms

piece f (oblique plural pieces)^[1]

• pece, pieche, piesce, piesse^[1][2][3]

The AND heads the word under the insular form pece.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin pettia (“piece”).^[1] Medieval Latin texts record it as petia and pecia, first in Merovingian formularies and often for a piece of land, about 730, and for a small piece of beaten gold about 800.^[5][6][7]

The Latin word is generally taken to be from Gaulish *pettia, reconstructed from Welsh peth (“part, thing”) and Breton pez (“piece”).^[8][9][5][6] Wiktionary gives the Gaulish form as *pettyā and derives it from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (“piece, portion”), but on its Latin page calls the word of uncertain origin and compares Old English and Old High German words for a bit or a plot.^[1] Its Romance cognates include Italian pezza, Italian pezzo and Spanish pieza.^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is pece in the Passion de Clermont, of about 1000, with an unclear sense: perhaps an adverb of time, "for some time", or a noun, "something worse".^[10][7][11] The Chanson de Roland, about 1100, uses it for a part of something torn or broken.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense "portion, bit" also gave a sense of time: une piece "for a while" from about 1140 and grant piece "a long time" from about 1150, which died out in the 16th or early 17th century, as did the compound pieça.^[7] The Roman de Troie has Quant ço rot grant piece duré "when that had lasted a long while again".^[13]

Concrete uses multiplied: a piece of cloth (about 1165–1170), a patch (about 1265), a piece of bread (late 13th century), and a plate of armour in the late 14th century.^[11] A piece of land or vineyard is common in charters, and Tobler–Lommatzsch also lists a coin, a cask and a stretch of road.^[14][13][15] Rashi glosses a Hebrew weaving term, the thrums at the edge of the warp, with the French word.^[16][11] The modern French word is pièce.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – pece in the Passion de Clermont.^[10][17][7]
• late 11th century – in Rashi's glosses, of the warp threads of a fabric.^[11][16]
• c. 1100 – a fragment of something broken, in the Chanson de Roland.^[11][12]
• c. 1136–1137 – the first Anglo-Norman record cited by the AND.^[4]
• c. 1150 – grant piece "a long time".^[7]
• c. 1170 – une piece de samit in Marie de France's Lais.^[11]
• 1241 – une pece de vigne "a piece of vineyard".^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. a piece, bit, part.^[1][4][18]
2. a fragment of something broken or torn.^[11][4][18]
3. a length of cloth.^[4][11]
4. a plot of land or vineyard.^[4][13]
5. a coin.^[4][15]
6. a space of time, a while;^[18][15][4] grant piece, a long time.^[18][15][4]
7. a stretch of road, a distance.^[15][4]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word pece and first cites it from about 1136–1137; besides the general senses it records a dressing for a wound, a bowl or drinking vessel, an ingot and other measures of metal, timber, fruit and wax, an indenture, a room of a building and a division of a shield.^[4] Rothwell points out the phrase a chef de piece "after a while", which an editor misread as pieté.^[19] Middle English pece comes from the Old French word and Medieval Latin pecia,^[20] and the English word piece is recorded from about 1200.^[21]

Word family

• pieça
• depecier

Descendants

• Middle French piece (→ French pièce)^[1]
• Walloon pîce^[1]
• Middle English pece (borrowed; → English piece)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch and the DÉCT head the word piece, the AND pece, the DMF and the TLFi pièce.^{[15][22][4][23]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 6:145
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. pece
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 741
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 524
7. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. pièce
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8:332
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6450
10. ^ a b 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. piece
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 UD Old French PROFITEROLE and UD Middle French PROFITEROLE treebanks, Universal Dependencies (from the SRCMF and the Base de français médiéval; texts by DEAF siglum), p. RolS
13. ^ a b c Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
14. ^ a b 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. 10:334
15. ^ a b c d e f Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:903
16. ^ a b Katan, Moshe (1988), Otzar La'azei Rashi: the Old French glosses of Rashi, Jerusalem; digital edition Sefaria, p. s.v. piece
17. ^ 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
18. ^ a b c d 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. piece
19. ^ Rothwell, William (2004), « Ignorant Scribe and Learned Editor: Patterns of Textual Error in Editions of Anglo-French Texts »; reprinted on the Anglo-Norman Hub, anglo-norman.net
20. ^ 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)
21. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
22. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. piece
23. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. pièce