rosbif French · revision 15982

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1691, Massialot|origins=en roast beef}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ʁɔs.bif/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''rosbif''' ''m'' (plural rosbifs)^(Wiktionary)

+ ''Ros de bif'' (1691), ''rosbif'' (1727), ''rôt-de-bif'' (1740), ''rostbeef'' (Voltaire), ''roast-beef'' (1764–1803), ''rochebif'' (Casanova).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|en|roast beef]] (also “roastbeef”), adapted,^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|18, 105b) formed in 1635 from [[m|en|roast|t=roasted]], from Old French “rostir” (see [[rôtir]]), and [[m|en|beef]], from Old French “boef” through Anglo-Norman (see [[bœuf]]).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) English thus took both parts of the word from French and gave the compound back.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Massialot's ''Cuisinier roial et bourgeois'' (1691) has ''deux Ros de Bif, garnis de cotelettes de veau mariné frites'', and even a ''Ros de bif de Mouton''.^(TLFi)^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word names a joint of beef roasted or for roasting, usually from the sirloin; cooks also used it for the hindquarters of a mutton, lamb or roe deer (1727), which Voltaire mocked: ''nos maîtres d'hôtel nous parlent aujourd'hui d'un roastbeef de mouton''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Littré 1873) The Frenchified ''rosbif'' drove out ''roast-beef'' except in English contexts.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ By metonymy, after ''mangeur de rosbif'', ''les rosbifs'' were the English (1774; already ''Jacques Rosbif'' for an English merchant in a 1727 play), a use that faded in the 19th century except in jest.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) In Alsace ''rossbif'', crossed with German ''Ross'' “horse”, is a dish of braised horse.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1635 – English ''roast beef''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1691 – ''Ros de bif'' in Massialot.^(TLFi)

+ * 1727 – ''Rosbif'', ''Jacques Rosbif'' in Boissy.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi)

+ * 1755 – ''Rosbif'' in Voltaire.^(TLFi)

+ * 1774 – “Englishman”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1798 – In the Académie.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|roast beef|alt=Roast beef]]; a joint of beef for roasting: ''une tranche de rosbif''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Rosbif de mouton'': the hindquarters of a sheep for roasting.^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''(familiar, pejorative, dated)'' An Englishman.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[rôtir]]

+ * [[bœuf]]

+ * [[bifteck]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}