pie

Forms

pie f (oblique plural pies)^[1]

• pye^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pīca (“magpie, jay”).^{[1][4][5][6][7]} The Latin word is the feminine of pīcus (“woodpecker”), and the TLFi takes both to be imitative, the masculine and the feminine having served to tell two different birds apart.^[7][6] Latin used it for the jay and the magpie, and also for a talkative woman.^[8] Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Italic *peikā and Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”),^[1] and the OLD compares Old High German speht (“woodpecker”).^[8]

Its Romance cognates include Old Occitan piga and Portuguese pega, the latter from a form with a different vowel.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are of about 1170: the Anglo-Norman Roman de Horn and Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[10][2][11] The TLFi, which dates the Horn to about 1175, notes that the bird often served to express the smallest value, as in "not worth a magpie".^[7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the bird, Tobler–Lommatzsch records the figurative joster au ni de pie "to attempt the impossible", au saut de la pie "unexpectedly" and the Ordre de la pie.^[12] In England the word also named a black and white tunic and an order of friars dressed in black and white.^[2]

In Middle and modern French the magpie stood for chatter: parler comme pies en cage (1563) and jaser comme une pie (1625), and a talkative woman was called a pie from 1640.^[7] From 1549 a horse with patches of white was called pie, like the bird.^[7] Bloch and Wartburg note that in the dialects the word is now less common than agace, a word of Germanic origin compared with Old High German agaza, and alive mainly in the west and south-west.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1170 – pie in the Anglo-Norman Roman de Horn.^[10][2][7]
• c. 1170 – in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[11]
• 1190–1200 – pie in the Picard fabliau Barat et Haimet.^[13]
• 1549 – a piebald horse, called pie.^[7]
• 1563 – parler comme pies en cage in Calvin.^[7]
• 1640 – pie, a talkative woman.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. the magpie, Pica pica.^[11][2]
2. a black and white tunic.^[2]
3. (in negations) a magpie as a thing of no value, nothing.^[7][2][14]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the bird pie 2, first cites it from about 1170, and records the spellings piet, pye and pyez, the black and white tunic, the Friars of the Pie and a phrase for "to be worthless".^[2] English pie "magpie" is from the Old French word, recorded from the middle of the 13th century, and magpie, with the nickname Mag, from about 1600.^[15]

Descendants

• Champenois pie^[1]
• French pie^[1]
• Middle English pye (borrowed; → English pie, Scots pie)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the word pie, the DEAF pie1 and the AND pie 2.^[11][10][2] The spelling is also the feminine of piu "pious",^[16][17] an Anglo-Norman spelling of pié "foot",^[1] and the AND's pie 1 "baked pastry dish", first cited in 1419.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. pie
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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8:420
5. ^ 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 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
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pīca
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6476
10. ^ 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. pie1
11. ^ a b c d Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:877
12. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:878
13. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. HaimBarNo
14. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. piu
17. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8:619
18. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. pie 1