cachier

Forms

cachier (present participle cachant; past participle cachié; first-person singular present cache)^[1]

• quachier^[2][3]

The DHLF records quachier first, in the 13th century and until the 15th, and cachier from about 1278.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *coacticō (“to press together”),^[4][2][5] an intensive of coāctō (“to compel”), itself a frequentative of cōgō (“to compel”).^[2][3] The last is formed from com- and agō.^[3] Bloch and Wartburg place the intensive in the north of Gaul, while the south formed a parallel derivative of the same verb.^[6]

The original sense "to press, squeeze" survives in the compound escachier "to crush", recorded from the 12th century,^[4][3] and in western dialect words for pressing and oppressing.^[5] The southern words for crushing and hurting continue coāctāre itself.^[2][3] Gamillscheg's first edition suggests that the shift to "to hide" was helped by the loss of an older Old French verb for hiding.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Greimas dates the word to 1220, in the Saint Graal, and gives it the senses "to trample" and "to hide".^[8] The TLFi gives the 13th-century spelling quachier in a manuscript of the Saint Graal, of a person hiding something from sight,^[2] and Godefroy's quotations from that text and, from the Somme le roi concern wealth that someone had hidden away.^[9] The DEAF's material also lists the form cacher in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie, about 1174, without giving its sense.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

From "to press, squeeze" the word came to mean "to hide", a sense the DHLF finds from the first texts but rare before the 16th century.^[3][6] Tobler–Lommatzsch records it as a transitive "to hide", a reflexive "to hide oneself" and "to hold back", of a knight who fought cautiously.^[12] The reflexive soi cachier is in the Roman de la Rose about 1275–1280.^[2]

The word replaced esconser, which lived until the end of the 15th century, and pushed back musser, which survives in the north-east and in Norman.^[6][3] Its abstract use, "to conceal" feelings or acts, dates from 1549.^[2][3] The modern word is French cacher.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1174 – cacher in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie, listed by the DEAF without a sense.^[10][11]
• 1220 – "to trample" and "to hide" in the Saint Graal, by Greimas's dating.^[8]
• 13th century – quachier "to hide" in a manuscript of the Saint Graal.^[2]
• 1275–1280 – reflexive soi cachier in Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose.^[2]
• 1549 – "to conceal" thoughts and acts.^[2]
• 1704 – cacher son jeu.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. to hide, conceal someone or something.^[12][8][9]
2. (reflexive) to hide oneself.^[12][2]
3. (reflexive) to hold back, act with caution.^[12]
4. to trample, press down.^[8]

Descendants

• Middle French cacher (→ French cacher)^[13][2]

Related words

• escachier

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch and Godefroy's Complément head the word cachier, the DMF cacher.^[12][9][13] The same spelling cachier is the northern and Anglo-Norman form of chacier "to chase", whose own source is *captiō and which gave the English word catch; it is a separate verb.^[1][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cacher
4. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:808
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 185
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 136
7. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1926–1928), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 198
8. ^ 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. cachier
9. ^ 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. 8:403
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. cachier
11. ^ 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. BenDucF
12. ^ a b c d e Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:6
13. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. cacher
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. catch