gripper French · revision 15958

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=1405|origins=frk *grīpan}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ɡʁi.pe/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''gripper'''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It probably goes back to [[frk|*grīpan|t=to grasp, seize]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|16, 73a) compare Middle Dutch “gripen”, [[goh|grīfan]] and [[de|greifen]];^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Wiktionary takes it from [[gem-pro|*grīpaną]].^(Wiktionary) The word seems to have existed long before it was written: its derivatives “agripper” (about 1200) and “gripaille” (13th century) are earlier, and its use was long confined to the slang of swindlers and thieves.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Bloch and Wartburg think the verb may instead be derived from the noun [[grippe]], from a Frankish “*grip”, as [[griffer]] is from [[griffe]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ [[es|gripar]] is borrowed from French.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1405; the ''Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris'' (1425) has it in the sense “to seize violently”.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In 1509 it was to seize with claws, in 1585 to filch (Noël du Fail), and in 1649 to collar a thief (Scarron); La Fontaine's servants have their cock ''grippée''.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) ''Être grippé de'' “to be infatuated with” is in Mme de Sévigné (1684).^(TLFi) These senses are now obsolete.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ From the 18th century it was a technical verb: of fabrics, to pucker (Académie, 1740), whence the medical ''face grippée'' (1814), and of a machine, to seize up through friction (''Encyclopédie'', 1757), whence ''grippage'' (1869) and in the 20th century the transitive “to cause to seize”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The noun ''grippe'', first “claw” and “quarrel”, then “whim” (''prendre en grippe''), named influenza from 1743, because it seizes suddenly, English and German took ''grippe'' in the 1770s and 1780s.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1200 – ''Agripper''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1405 – ''Gripper''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1425 – “To seize”, in the ''Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1585 – “To filch”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1680 – ''Grippe-sou''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1740 – Of fabric, “to pucker”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1743 – ''Grippe'' “influenza”.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1757 – Of a machine, “to seize up”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1869 – ''Grippage''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # Of a mechanism, to [[m|en|seize up]], jam: ''le moteur a grippé'', ''(reflexive)'' ''se gripper''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # To cause (a mechanism) to seize: ''la rouille a grippé la serrure''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # Of fabric, to pucker.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''(obsolete)'' To [[m|en|grab]], snatch; to collar (a thief).^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[grippe]]

+ * [[agripper]]

+ * [[grippe-sou]]

+ * [[grippage]]

+ * [[dégripper]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[griffe]]

+ * [[griffer]]

+ * [[grimper]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}