drogue French · revision 38656

+ {{infobox|confidence=disputed|formation=borrowing|attested=14th century|origins=dum droge}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /dʁɔɡ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''drogue''' ''f'' (plural drogues)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is disputed.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) The likeliest explanation: it is [[bor|dum|droge|t=dry]], from [[m|dum|droge vate|t=dry barrels]], the adjective being taken as a noun for the contents, “dried goods”;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary) Bloch and Wartburg note that [[it|droga]] and [[es|droga]] are recorded later than the French word, which favours a Dutch source.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The FEW instead derives it from an Arabic word for the chaff of wheat, a proposal that the TLFi finds hard to square with the sounds and the meaning.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(FEW|3, 189b) Pierre Guiraud saw in it a southern form of [[la|dērogō|t=to take away, diminish the value of]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) Littré noted that English etymologists connected [[m|en|drug]] with an Old English word for “dry”.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The derivative [[droguerie]] shows that the word existed in the 14th century,^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) and a 14th-century poem against the alchemists already speaks of dissolving and distilling ''tes drogues''.^(Littré 1873)^(GLLF 1989) The TLFi's first direct record is ''drocques'' in Villon's ''Testament'' (about 1462), for ingredients used in dyeing and in chemical and pharmaceutical preparations.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From an ingredient the word passed to a remedy or medicine (1568), often with a pejorative tone that the verb [[droguer]] reinforced.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) From that came “something unpleasant to swallow” and, in Molière's ''L'Avare'' (1668), a person or thing of little worth, a sense now gone.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The now usual sense “narcotic” is recorded in Colette in 1913, and it has spread to tranquillisers and stimulants;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) the GLLF dates it to the same year in Gaston Esnault.^(GLLF 1989) ''Drogué'' “drugged; drug addict” dates from about 1930.^(DHLF 1992) [[droguerie]] meant spices and medicines in the 14th century and took its modern sense, a shop selling household goods, in 1835, much as English ''drug'' led to ''drugstore''.^(DHLF 1992) The cloth [[droguet]] (1505) was probably named from the word in its sense “worthless thing”.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 14th century – The derivative ''droguerie''.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * c. 1462 – ''Drocques'' in Villon.^(TLFi)

+ * 1549 – ''Droguiste''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1554 – ''Droguer''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1568 – “Medicine, remedy”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1668 – “Worthless person or thing”, in Molière.^(TLFi)

+ * 1913 – “Narcotic”, in Colette.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1930 – ''Drogué''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|drug]], narcotic: ''le trafic de drogue'', ''drogues douces'' and ''drogues dures'', soft and hard drugs.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(figurative)'' Something one cannot do without: ''le jeu est devenu sa drogue''.^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(dated or pejorative)'' A remedy, a medicine, especially of doubtful worth.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(dated)'' Something unpleasant to drink.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(obsolete)'' A raw ingredient used in pharmacy, chemistry or dyeing.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[droguer]]

+ * [[drogué]]

+ * [[droguerie]]

+ * [[droguiste]]

+ * [[droguet]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Drogue'' was also the name of a card game once played by sailors and soldiers, in which the loser had to wear a forked wooden peg on the nose; the Grand Robert dates it to 1829 and the Académie suggests it comes from the sense “worthless thing”.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Académie 9)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}