The French language is playful.
Some of the words that compose it have a quite unusual and unsuspected etymology.
The name
"Au Lion d'or"
for example, the name of places of restoration and accommodation found almost everywhere in France, comes from the contraction of
"in bed we sleep"
.
To show customers the level of hospitality they offered, innkeepers displayed this sign above their door.
The words thus constructed are a few to populate our language... Here is an anthology.
● Sweater
Delightfully old-fashioned, the
“sweater”
appeared in our language at the end of the 19th century.
It designates a woolen knit garment, which the dictionary describes as being
"generally thick, with a turtleneck and long sleeves"
, and which is put on over the head.
A funny story surrounds its etymology.
According to the Trésor de la langue française, it was born from a popular abbreviation of (mar)chands d'ail, after the name given to the knitwear worn by vegetable sellers in the Halles de Paris.
Because, as we read in Cocteau,
"the Montparnassians used, in Paris, overalls, sweaters, shirts, sandals by the sea"
(
Poésies critique
, 1959).
● Butt
The
“butt”
is a rather disgusting little cigarette butt.
But did you know that its name was derived from
megauder
, a verb that once referred to the action of the infant sucking milk from a pregnant woman?
Its meaning has slipped, by analogy between the smoker who strives to take the last puffs of a cigar, and the infant who tries to obtain the last drops of milk.
Another hypothesis holds that the word
"butt"
is derived from the form
meg
, synonymous with
"dude"
in popular parlance.
In the 19th century, a
“little guy”
was indeed called a
butt,
as indicated by the CNRTL.
● Stupid
An unusual name if necessary, the sot-l'y-laisse designates a delicate piece that is on each side of the carcass, above the rump of a poultry.
Once written by Canadians
"solilesses"
, it is said to have been so named because of its flavor.
Indeed, only a fool would leave such delicate meat in the dish, or worse, offer it to his neighbour... Formerly, the flesh between the breast and the shoulders of the deer was called, in Middle French , the "
fool the i leaves"
, specifies the thesaurus.
● “Denim” jeans
The story around
"denim"
, this cotton canvas used to make jeans, is not certain.
But it would seem, according to the Larousse, that this word was born from the contraction of the words
“de Nîmes”
.
It was in this city that the cottony fabric in twill weave was made in the 18th century.
It was then exported to California by Levi Strauss, a Bavarian Jew who emigrated to the United States in 1847. It was the latter who, in San Fransisco, was the first to use this fabric from Nîmes to make the famous jeans models.
● Velvet
"You have velvet eyes..."
Does anyone who secretly hopes to seduce with these words know that
"velvet"
is closely related... to body hair?
When it first appeared in French, the word indeed designates a
“short and tight-haired fabric”
, attests the dictionary.
It was said in Old French
velos
, a form that goes back to the Latin
villosus
, meaning
"hairy, covered with hair"
, according to Françoise Nore in
J'en perds mon latin
(L'Opportun, 2022).
It is therefore closely related to
"hairy"
, as the latter shares the same Latin origin.
“Velvet is therefore, etymologically, a hairy fabric, which breaks the myth a bit”
.
Especially when it comes to seduction...