Etymology – etymon

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Etymology etymon
(2) Branch of linguistics that studies the
origin and the history of vocables
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Etymological classes

• (1) Inherited lexicon

normally transmitted lexical units (from the
common ancestor of the language family)

• (2) Borrowings ( loan words)

lexicals units which were taken from another
language

• (3) Internal creations

new lexical units constructed from existing
materials in the same language
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Etymon inherited lexicon
Common ancestor of a cognate set
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Etymon borrowings
Borrowed lexical unit (of the donour langage)
Engl. dessert lt French dessert
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Etymon internal creations
Etyma
It depends...

• (1) Derivation
• type of word-formation in which new lexemes are
  created by adding affixes to existing lexemes
• Example (TO) WASH -ABLE gt WASHABLE

• (2) Compounding
• type of word-formation in which new lexemes are
  created by joining two or more lexemes
• Example (TO) SCARE CROW gt SCARECROW

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Idioms and collocations?

• Idioms
• Should their etyma be phrases?
• Clearly, this is a blind spot of etymological
  theory and practice!

• Collocations
• As collocations are not linguistic signs, they
  do not have etymologies (nor etyma)
• However, we should try to identify their source

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Example Fr. poser un lapin

• poser un lapin à qqn
• lit.  to plant a rabbit on somebody 
• to stand somebody up

• Idiom or collocation?

• TLF idiom ( Expr. )

• poser des lapins to be in the habit of standing
  somebody up

Collocation!

• ne me pose pas de lapin! do not stand me up !

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Diachronic perspective?

• lapin1 rabbit (since ca 1450)

• monter en lapin to ride a coach sitting next to
  the coachman (where no passengers are supposed to
  sit), so as to travel as a passenger in overload
  (18091897)

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More of the same

• voyager en lapin to travel riding a coach
  sitting next to the coachman as a passenger in
  overload (18281858)

• en lapin sitting next to the coachman (where no
  passengers are supposed to sit), so as to travel
  as a passenger in overload (1897)

• lapin2 passenger in overload in a coach, who
  sits next to the coachman (where no passengers
  are supposed to sit) (18731922)

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Towards illicite behaviour

• faire cadeau dun lapin à qqn to omit to pay
  a prostitute (1878)

• poser un lapin à qqn to omit to pay a
  prostitute (1881)

• lapin3 fact of not fulfilling a duty toward
  somebody (postulated)

poser un de ces lapins to fail clearly to meet
somebodys duties (1888)

• poser un lapin à qqn to fail to meet
  somebodys duties (1896)

• poser un lapin à qqn to leave without paying
  somebodys due (1896)

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Other illicite behaviour

• poser un lapin à qqn to stand somebody up
  (since 1896)

• lapin4 appointment at which one does not show
  up (since 2003)

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French borrowing in Occitan
Castres
Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik (LRL) 5/1
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Idiom

• Occitan (Castres) fa de lapins to cover a part
  of a wineyard which one has left uncultivated by
  turned over soil in order to give the impression
  that it has been cultivated