rébus French · revision 15726

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1480, Guillaume Alexis|origins=la rēs}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ʁe.bys/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA: /ʁe.by/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''rébus''' ''m'' (invariable)^(Wiktionary)

+ Written ''rebus'' by the Académie in 1694, later ''rébus''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|rēbus|t=by means of things]], the ablative plural of [[m|la|rēs|t=thing]] (the source of [[rien]]),^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)^(GLLF 1989)^(FEW|10, 287a) but how it came to name the puzzle is disputed.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Ménage traced it to the Latin formula “de rebus quae geruntur” (“about the things that are going on”), the heading of satirical pieces with riddling drawings that the law clerks of Picardy wrote at Carnival;^(Littré 1873)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Petit Robert 2007) Bloch and Wartburg and Wartburg's FEW reject this, as “rébus de Picardie” is recorded much later, and see in it “by things” as opposed to “by letters”, words being shown by pictures of things.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(Académie 9) The TLFi objects that the earliest sense, “equivocal word”, is not about pictures.^(TLFi) Pierre Guiraud saw a deliberate pun on [[m|fro|rebous]], a variant of [[rebours]] “the wrong way round”, which also meant a riddle; the picture puzzles would then be a later sense tied to the Latin.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Guillaume Alexis (about 1480; the TLFi dates the text 1512) rhymes ''rebus'' with ''abus'': the ''rebus'' of Venus, Mars and Cupid “are nothing but deceit”, that is, words taken in another sense than their natural one.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Rabelais (1546) a ''rebus'' is a figurative, conventional language: the monks called the cloister kitchen “the holy chapel” in their ''rebus''.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873) The picture puzzle appears in Marot (before 1535): in a ''rebus de Picardie'' a currycomb, a scythe and a calf (''estrille, faulx, veau'') spell ''estrille Fauveau''.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873) In the late 16th century Des Accords describes a fashion for ''devises par seules peintures'' called ''rebus'', and Brantôme mentions the ''rebus d'Arras''.^(Littré 1873)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ The sense “blunder” (Brantôme) and “bad pun” lasted into 19th-century dictionaries,^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) and ''parler rébus'' meant to speak obscurely (1845).^(TLFi) Today a ''rébus'' is the picture puzzle, and figuratively an enigma or illegible handwriting.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1480 – “Equivocal word” (Guillaume Alexis).^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * before 1535 – ''Rebus de Picardie'', a picture puzzle (Marot).^(TLFi)

+ * 1546 – A conventional language (Rabelais).^(TLFi)

+ * 1583–1590 – “Blunder” (Brantôme).^(TLFi)

+ * 1694 – First recorded by the Académie, as ''rebus''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1845 – ''Parler rébus'' “to speak obscurely”.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|rebus]], a puzzle of pictures, letters and numbers whose names sound out a word or phrase.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(figurative)'' An [[m|en|enigma]]; writing that is hard to make out.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[rien]]

+ * [[rebours]]

+ * [[la|rēs]]

+ * [[en|rebus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}