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Linguistic Society of America

Two Lexicographic NotesAuthor(s): A. H. SchutzReviewed work(s):Source: Language, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Mar., 1928), pp. 31-32Published by: Linguistic Society of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/409501 .

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TWO LEXICOGRAPHICNOTESA. H. SCHUTZ

OHIOSTATEUNIVERSITYI. OLD FRENCH leoir

In Aucassin et Nicolette, VIII, 7, occurs this passage: Et li cris lieve etla noise, et li cevalier et li serjant s'arment et qeurent as portes et asmurs por le castel desfendre, et li borgois montent as aleoirs des murs,si jetent quariax et peus aguisids. Roques simply defines 'chemin deronde'I; Suchier, too, has it as 'Gang auf der Festungsmauer' implying,however, that a technical connotation might be involved2. It is thepurpose 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 themethod of protection adopted by the soldiers and the bourgeoisie. Theformer put on armor. This is the force we may rightly attach tos'armer, knowing that in OF armes could refer as well to defensive as tooffensive equipment. The civilian population is not thus protected.These men are surely not to fight exposed to the arrows or crossbolts ofthe enemy without other protection than the crenelated breastwork.They take refuge, says the text, in the aleoirs, which cannot, then, referto the almost open road on top of the walls. This is the situation asexplained by a noted French archaeologist:3 'Le chemin de ronde quisurmonte les remparts 4tait quelquefois 6largi au moyen d'encorbeille-ments, A l'extdrieur par des hourds ou des machicoulis, 1'int6rieurparun encorbeillement de pierre, une galerie ou coursiere de bois, couverted'un toit qui protege les d6fenseurs contre les projectiles lanc6s au-dessus du parapet.' Coursiere is in all likelihood equivalent to thealeoir, for it would seem to be derived from course,substantive of courir;see, for instance, Du Cange, s.v. Corsseria: 'Via lustrandis vigiliisaliisque usibus accomoda, per quam de loco ad locum curritur', alsoMistral coursiero, Raynouard corsieyra, George Sand coursiere4. Now

1 Edition of Aucassin et Nicolette, Glossaire.2Edition of Aucassin et Nicolette, Notes.SC. Enlart, Archdologie-Architectureivile et militaire 475.4A. H. Schutz, The Peasant Vocabulary in the Worksof GeorgeSand, Ch. I,Art. 66.

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32 A. H. SCHUTZthe mediaeval Latin offers also the counterpart, if due caution preventscalling it the etymon, of aleoir, e.g.: 'Licentia datur faciendi aponsamsupra corseriis villae, aponsatam muris tali modo quo desubtus possittransire una charrata feni et quod alatoria dictorum murorum maneatin statu in quo sunt de praesenti' (Charta Tossiacensis)5. Anotherpassage cited by the same authority is more interesting: Et ibi nulliliceat facere policium nisi in una regula, et id sine propugnaculis etalatoriis (Norm Antiq. Consuet.). On this passage, the comment is asfollows: 'In hoc posteriori exemplo Alatoria vel alatorium ut ambulacrumita et alam domus, aile de bdtiment, significare videtur'. Two closelyrelated facts would appear to stamp this explanation as one of DuCange's numerous fantasies; firstly, the suffix -orium is most oftenattached to verbs, in this case aler, rather than nouns, such as ala6,secondly, there is the analogy of coursiere, to say nothing of the factthat ambulacrum occurs in the explanation offered in the Glossarium.However, the remark cited suggests that we are to think of an aleoirnot primarilyas a road but as a shelter situated on a wall, through whichone can pass, which is, after all, quite a different thing.

II. MORE ON Catellus, CaniculusSome recently noted Rumanian examples offer a curious corollaryto my treatment of the question in LANGUAGE.6. With reference tocatulusvs. catellus,the latter form alone is represented as cdjelus['ketSEluS]defined 'petit chien' by Dam6, Dictionnaire Roumain-Frangais, Bu-

carest, 1893. We have also cdfelandru, with the same meaning andcdjaun 'canaille, grec (!)'. Incidentally,7 the first of the two has alsothe meaning 'petit du renard'. Further extension of meaning is hererepresented 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 ofa possible figure analogous to that implied in Spanish hijuela 'palmseed' and hijo 'shoot of a plant'. More striking than these facts is theexistence in Rumanian, and one is led to wonder whether it is not uniquein Romance, of an exact parallel to the pair cants et cata, that wasmentioned as being offered by the grammarian Vergilius; i.e. Rumanianhas cdine as 'male dog' and cdjea[ko'tSa]as 'female dog'.

5 Du Cange, Glossariumad scriptoresmediae et infimae latinitatis.6 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 par-lant des chiens et des loups'. The same verb, given as 's'accoupler', is similarlyqualified.