cuivre

See also: cuivré

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French cuivre, quivre, queivre, coivre, from Latin Cyprium, cupreum (aes) (compare cuprum) from Ancient Greek Κῠ́προς (Kŭ́pros, “Cyprus”). It was not uncommon for Greek short ῠ (pronounced in Classical Attic as /y/) to be adapted as Latin short ŭ. This would normally yield Proto-Western-Romance *[o], but a following palatal sound apparently could cause *[o] to be raised to *[u] (or alternatively, the original close quality of Latin short ŭ to be retained) early enough for the sound change of Proto-Western-Romance *[u] > Old French [y] to apply, yielding the now standard form with ⟨ui⟩ (Old French [yj], modern French [ɥi]). Compare truite from Late Latin tructa, puits from Latin puteus, and huis from Latin ōstium. (But ⟨oi⟩ is seen in forms such as rasoir < rasōrium). Compare the development of ēbrius to French ivre (as opposed to *oivre). A competing explanation supposes a sporadic lowering of Latin ŭ to ŏ (yielding *coprium) or of Western Romance *o to *ɔ, since *ɔ was regularly diphthongized to *uɔ before a palatal and the resulting triphthong *uɔi was simplified to Old French ui (compare corium > cuir).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɥivʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cuivre m (countable and uncountable, plural cuivres)

1. copper

   Le vert-de-gris est la rouille du cuivre. ― Verdigris is copper rust.

2. (music) brass

   Coordinate term: bois

3. (art) copperplate

Derived terms

• requin cuivre

Verb

cuivre

1. inflection of cuivrer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Related terms

• cuivré
• cuivrer
• cuivreux

Further reading

• “cuivre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.