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Two Lexicographic Notes Author(s): A. H. Schutz Reviewed work(s): Source: Language, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar., 1928), pp. 31-32 Published by: Linguistic Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/409501 . Accessed: 29/12/2011 05:23
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TWO LEXICOGRAPHICNOTES
A. H. SCHUTZ
UNIVERSITY OHIOSTATE

I. OLD FRENCH aleoir In Aucassin et Nicolette, VIII, 7, occurs this passage: Et li cris lieve et la noise, et li cevalier et li serjant s'arment et qeurent as portes et as murs por le castel desfendre, et li borgois montent as aleoirs des murs, si jetent quariax et peus aguisids. Roques simply defines 'chemin de ronde'I; Suchier, too, has it as 'Gang auf der Festungsmauer' implying, however, that a technical connotation might be involved2. It is the purpose of this note to explain what the last named editor fails to explain, namely just what this connotation is. In our citation, it is evident that there is a contrast offered as to the method of protection adopted by the soldiers and the bourgeoisie. The former put on armor. This is the force we may rightly attach to s'armer, knowing that in OF armes could refer as well to defensive as to offensive equipment. The civilian population is not thus protected. These men are surely not to fight exposed to the arrows or crossbolts of the enemy without other protection than the crenelated breastwork. They take refuge, says the text, in the aleoirs, which cannot, then, refer to the almost open road on top of the walls. This is the situation as explained by a noted French archaeologist:3 'Le chemin de ronde qui surmonte les remparts 4tait quelquefois 6largi au moyen d'encorbeillements, A l'extdrieur par des hourds ou des machicoulis, 1'int6rieur par un encorbeillement de pierre, une galerie ou coursiere de bois, couverte d'un toit qui protege les d6fenseurs contre les projectiles lanc6s audessus du parapet.' Coursiere is in all likelihood equivalent to the aleoir, for it would seem to be derived from course,substantive of courir; see, for instance, Du Cange, s.v. Corsseria: 'Via lustrandis vigiliis aliisque usibus accomoda, per quam de loco ad locum curritur', also Mistral coursiero, Raynouard corsieyra, George Sand coursiere4. Now
of Aucassin et Nicolette, Glossaire. of Aucassin et Nicolette, Notes. civile et militaire 475. SC. Enlart, Archdologie-Architecture 4A. H. Schutz, The Peasant Vocabulary in the Works of GeorgeSand, Ch. I, Art. 66. 31
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A. H. SCHUTZ

the mediaeval Latin offers also the counterpart, if due caution prevents calling it the etymon, of aleoir, e.g.: 'Licentia datur faciendi aponsam supra corseriis villae, aponsatam muris tali modo quo desubtus possit transire una charrata feni et quod alatoria dictorum murorum maneat in statu in quo sunt de praesenti' (Charta Tossiacensis)5. Another passage cited by the same authority is more interesting: Et ibi nulli liceat facere policium nisi in una regula, et id sine propugnaculis et alatoriis (Norm Antiq. Consuet.). On this passage, the comment is as follows: 'In hoc posteriori exemplo Alatoria vel alatorium ut ambulacrum ita et alam domus, aile de bdtiment,significare videtur'. Two closely related facts would appear to stamp this explanation as one of Du Cange's numerous fantasies; firstly, the suffix -orium is most often attached to verbs, in this case aler, rather than nouns, such as ala6, secondly, there is the analogy of coursiere, to say nothing of the fact that ambulacrumoccurs in the explanation offered in the Glossarium. However, the remark cited suggests that we are to think of an aleoir not primarily as a road but as a shelter situated on a wall, through which one can pass, which is, after all, quite a different thing. II. MORE ON Catellus, Caniculus Some recently noted Rumanian examples offer a curious corollary to my treatment of the question in LANGUAGE 3.6. With reference to catulus vs. catellus, the latter form alone is represented as cdjelus ['ketSEluS] defined 'petit chien' by Dam6, Dictionnaire Roumain-Frangais, Bucarest, 1893. We have also cdfelandru, with the same meaning and cdjaun 'canaille, grec (!)'. Incidentally,7 the first of the two has also the meaning 'petit du renard'. Further extension of meaning is here represented by cdjel, signifying 'larva of a bee', also 'to grow thick' said of bulbous plants. My authority, in putting cdjel d'ostoroiit 'clove of garlic' under a separate heading, seems not to take account of a possible figure analogous to that implied in Spanish hijuela 'palm seed' and hijo 'shoot of a plant'. More striking than these facts is the existence in Rumanian, and one is led to wonder whether it is not unique in Romance, of an exact parallel to the pair cants et cata, that was mentioned as being offered by the grammarian Vergilius; i.e. Rumanian has cdine as 'male dog' and cdjea [ko'tSa]as 'female dog'.
5

Du Cange, Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis.

Nyrop III ?276.

7Just as canis is identified with the wolf, so are derivatives of cattus. Cdteli, rendered '6tre en chaleur' is further qualified by Dam6 with the phrase 'en parlant des chiens et des loups'. The same verb, given as 's'accoupler', is similarly qualified.