râble French · revision 15927

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=1246, roaule|origins=la ruō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ʁabl/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA: /ʁɑbl/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''râble''' ''m'' (plural râbles)^(Wiktionary)

+ ''Roaule'' (1246), ''rouable'', ''reable'' (1388), ''raable'' (1401); the Académie wrote ''rable'' until 1740.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Old French [[m|fro|roable]], from [[la|rutābulum|t=baker's oven rake]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|10, 597b) a technical word formed from the supine “rutum” of [[m|la|ruō|t=to throw down; to rush]];^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) Rey notes it was also a familiar Latin word for the penis.^(DHLF 1992) Cognate with [[pro|redable]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ The sense “back of a hare or rabbit” (1532) is probably the same word used by metaphor, some rakes having prongs set in the bar as the spine has its ribs, according to Bloch;^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Petit Robert 2007) Littré thought instead of [[es|rabo|t=tail]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A letter of the Count of Bar (1246) has ''roaule'' for a toothless rake used to clear mud from ditches;^(TLFi) a 13th-century fabliau uses ''rouable'' for an oven rake.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word names a long-handled tool with a bent end for stirring embers or molten matter: a baker's rake, a metal-worker's rabble (1762) and a salt-maker's rake for drawing salt from the pan.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) By likeness of shape it was a term of boat-building (1505, 1625).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Rabelais (1532) first uses it for the back of a quadruped from the shoulders to the tail, now chiefly in cooking (''râble de lapin'').^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) Familiarly it is a person's back (1599), as in ''tomber sur le râble à qqn'' “to set upon someone”.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) The adjective ''râblé'' “stocky” (about 1570) is common.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1246 – ''Roaule'' “ditch rake”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1401 – ''Raable'' in the royal household accounts.^(TLFi)

+ * 1532 – The back of an animal, in Rabelais.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * c. 1570 – ''Râblé''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1599 – A person's back.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1762 – A metal-worker's rabble.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The back of a hare or rabbit, ''(cooking)'' the [[m|en|saddle]]: ''râble de lièvre''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(familiar)'' A person's back: ''tomber sur le râble à qqn''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(technical)'' A [[m|en|rake]] or [[m|en|rabble]] for stirring embers or molten metal; a salt-worker's rake.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[râblé]]

+ * [[râbler]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[ruer]]

+ * [[rabiot]]

+ * [[en|rabble]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}