Brian wrote:
I don't know whether he says so or not, but that's via
OFr <pousser> 'to breathe with difficulty, to wheeze (~1150 for a horse,
beg. 14th c. for a person), to exercise physical pressure on, to shove or jostle
(a person or thing) (late 12th c.), later developing other
senses.
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Ishinan's response:
What is the source for the "~1150" date
you are quoting above? Can this source be accessed for the
exact definition as well?
The reason I am asking is as follows: My understanding
is that the Old French term you are quoting is OF. pourcif,
poulsif, the modern French «poussif» cf. «pursy and
pursif » or short-winded (see Skeat, An Etymological dictionary of the
English language p. 480) which means: not breathing or able to breathe
except with difficulty; "breathless from running"; also fat and
short-breathed; fat, short, and thick; swelled with pampering; as, pursy insolence.
In French it was first applied to horses (Dyspnée du cheval) and later extended to
humans and further applied to a disease of wine «POUSSÉ: Du
vin qui se gâte par une chaleur qui le fait fermenter hors de saison»
(Cours compl. d'agric., X, p.359b). Recently used to describe a
decrepit car, or engine (en parlant d'un véhicule, d'un moteur.
Qui a de la peine à avancer).
BTW, there is also a third unrelated term which means
dust in French: «pousse». Étymol. et Hist. 1363
poulce «poussière de certaines substances» (Compt. de P. Culdoe ds
Hist. litt. de la Fr., XXIV, 651 ds Gdf.
Compl.). Dér. fém. de l'a. fr. pous (v.
poussière).
Unfortunately, all these definitions, along with
«pousser» (to grow in French), have nothing to do with
the English sense of pushing, nor can they be considered
a logical step toward the development of the English «push».
In fact, asthma, or breathless from running can be provoked by
many reasons other than the result of pushing. It is a well
known fact that some people are susceptible to developing asthma from simply
laughing or inhaling hay or dust, in this case, perhaps, related to
(poussière)? Though etymology is not an exact science, it still requires
rational explanation and accurate information. These perquisites seem
to be lacking in the O.Fr. example you have given.
According to my source (Centre national de ressources
textuelles at lexicales), the French definition of your suggested
term and the date of its first occurrence in 1280 (and not~1150) is as
follows.
Found in Jehan et
Blonde, poems and songs written by a royal official; Philippe De
Remi Beaumanoir (born in the early part of the 13th century and died in 1296).
The poems tell the story of a young man, the son of an impoverished knight, who
succeeds through his wits and his chivalric abilities in marrying the daughter
of the earl of Oxford. (Philippe de
Beaumanoir, Jehan et Blonde, 2440 ds T.-L.)
DEFINITION IN FRENCH «qui éprouve des difficultés
de respiration». qui succède toujours à une affection pulmonaire
aiguë, grave (...) est caractérisée par quatre signes principaux: absence de
fièvre, toux, atténuation du murmure vésiculaire et le soubresaut.
Se dit d'un cheval qui a une respiration difficile, Qui se
fait avec difficulté, sans inspiration, sans élan. Like in the case of the Latin definitions, I am afraid,
the O.Fr. example lacks the adequate semantic of the
English «push» or even Middle
French pousser (dated the end of the 14th
c.): «exercer une pression sur une chose pour la déplacer»
i.e. To apply pressure against, for the purpose of moving: To bear hard
upon; to press against something in order to move it forward or
aside.
POUSSER: Prononc. et Orth.: [puse],
(il) pousse [pus]. Homon. pouce, poussa, poussah. . Étymol. et Hist. A. 1. Fin
xives. «exercer une pression sur
une chose pour la déplacer» (Froissart,
Chroniques, éd. G. Raynaud, t.9, p.248). Froissart's Chronicle was
written in French by Jehan (Jean) Froissart. It covers the years 1322
until 1400 and describes the lead up to, and the progress of, the first half
of the Hundred Years' War.
If you have a source that contradicts these
facts, would you kindly share it. I'll be most grateful.
Moreover, as I previously stated in an earlier
message, the first occurrence with the sense of «push» in Middle
French is pouce, poussa, poussah, and dates from the end of the 14 th c.
While the Middle English example is circa a century earlier. Based on this
discrepancy, it would seem that the English might be from another source than
the Middle French «pouce, poussa, poussah».
All of these facts point to a
possible convergence of several sources. I suggested «poach » to push,
poke, from M.Fr. pocher to thrust, push, but
Torsten pointed out that according to Kuhn's
criteria, the word can't be Germanic because in Germanic, a p- would
be from PIE b. In addition, in a more recent message today, Torsten
suggested: Danish, afpudse:
Another suggestion could be «poke» which has
the same meaning of trust or push; ME. «poken» in Chaucer (c. 1343 1400).
According to Skeat, it is of Celtic origin cf. Gael »puc». Others have
suggested yet another source: M.L.G. «poken» "to stick with a knife" from P.Gmc. base *puk-.
A third suggestion was offered
by Peter P., this time from a Finnish source: «puskea» -to push <
PFU *puske -push -stab. It would be nice to have a date for his suggestion
and to compare it with the other viable sources.
At any rate, it is quite revealing that all the meanings
of these suggested sources for «push» seem to occur in different
languages around roughly the same time, i.e. in the 14 th
c.
Despite the great temptation to attribute it to Latin,
none of these examples have anything to do with the
Classical pulso~are & pulsus. The 10 definitions of the
Classical terms pulso~are & pulsus were quoted verbatim, in
my previous message, from "The Oxford Classical Latin Dictionary"
Ishinan
1/10/2009