poulaine
.
Searchable Lemmata: poulaine (MdE).
Alternate Forms: polein, poleine.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1(n.)
Accessory;
extended point or pike of a shoe, created by padding or a stick of bone or wood; by extension the shoe itself. In Britain the term first appears with this meaning in an Anglo-French in a statute from Edward IV's reign. [It is not given entry in AND1 but is found under Stats ii 414 (Statutes of the Realm, Edw. IV); it is not in PROME].(ante 1500 ?)
1. Qe nulle persone Cordewaner ... face ... ascuns solers galoges ou husens oveque ascun pike ou polein qe passera la longeur ... de deux poutz
Legal.
[AND Stats (ii 414)]
Sex: Male Use: Secular Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: Foot.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, AF and Middle French.
The OED suggests: 'Anglo-Norman poleine (1464-9 or earlier: see below) and Middle French, French (now hist.) poulaine (1375-9 as poullaine, denoting the pointed toe; c1386-9 or earlier as polayne, denoting the shoe; cf. slightly earlier soulers a la poulaine, lit. "shoes in Polish fashion" (1365; French souliers à la poulaine)), use as noun of feminine of poulain (adjective) Polish (see POLAN n.), the shoes and their characteristic long toe being so called on account of their supposed Polish origin (cf. earlier CRAKOW n., and see Französisches etymol. Wörterbuch s.v. polánin)'; s.v. 'poulaine, n.' OED, 2nd ed. (1989).
The word does not appear in an 'English' text until the sixteenth century (but cf. poleine, an armoured knee-piece).
For discussion of the word's provenance see Chambers, M. (2009), pp. 58-64.
WF:
Etym Cog:
