coincer French · revision 17577

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1773, Bourdé de Villehuet|origins=la cuneus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kwɛ̃.se/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''coincer'''^(Wiktionary)

+ First written ''coinser'' (1773).^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is derived from [[coin]] “wedge” with a verb ending.^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The noun continues [[la|cuneus|t=wedge]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary) Littré compares a Lorraine dialect verb of the same form, “to hold in a corner, drive into a corner”.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Bourdé de Villehuet's ''Manuel des marins'' (1773) uses ''coinser les mâts'', to fix the masts with wedges.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The technical sense “to fix with wedges” is the first; in the 19th century the verb spread into common use with the idea of preventing something or someone from moving (the participle ''coincé'' in Eugène Sue, before 1857).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) Larousse in 1866 records the senses “to jam in a corner or a narrow space” and “to reduce to helplessness”, and the reflexive ''se coincer'', of a mechanism, is in Littré in 1877.^(GLLF 1989) The familiar figurative use, of a person, “to corner, catch”, spread from 1922 (Carco), and the GLLF dates the sense “to arrest” to 1942.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) Mountaineers used it from 1911 for wedging a knot, a knee or an arm in a crack.^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1773 – ''Coinser les mâts'', in Bourdé de Villehuet.^(TLFi)

+ * Before 1857 – ''Coincé'', unable to move, in Eugène Sue.^(TLFi)

+ * 1866 – Larousse records the extended senses.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1888–1890 – The noun ''coincement''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1911 – In mountaineering.^(BHVF)

+ * 1922 – The figurative familiar use, in Carco.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To fix with [[coin|alt=wedges]]: ''coincer des rails''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # To [[m|en|wedge|alt=wedge]] or [[m|en|jam]] something; to block a mechanism by accident: ''elle a coincé sa fermeture éclair''.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''Se coincer'': to get stuck: ''la fermeture éclair s'est coincée''.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(familiar)'' To [[m|en|corner|alt=corner]], catch: ''on a coincé le voleur''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(familiar)'' To stump with a question: ''il l'a coincé sur cette question''; intransitively, to be stuck on something: ''elle coince sur les maths''.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[coin]]

+ * [[décoincer]]

+ * [[coincement]]

+ * [[recoin]]

+ * [[la|cuneus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}