chevaux (not cheveux) de frise

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 8/12/02 1:27:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, gcohen at UMR.EDU
writes:

> The jargon term in English-speaking armies for the stakes was
>  >>"cheveaux-de-frise", generally rendered "frizzy horses".  This will
> provide
>  >>an antedating for "frizzy" in the OED if anyone can locate a contemporary
>  >>soldier's reference to to "frizzy horses".
>  >>
>
>  Can we assume this was CHEVAUX rather than CHEVEUX?  If the latter,
>  it's more like frizzy hair.

Yes, "chevaux de frise" is correct.  According to MWCD10, the singular is
"cheval de frise", the first usage was 1668, and the origin is French "horse
from Friesland."

This is plausible.  During the 17th Century the French army had much occasion
to observe Dutch troops, first as allies and then as enemies, and it is
certainly possible that the French, or some individual Frenchman such as
Vauban (1633-1707, Louis XIV's architect of military defenses), observed some
Frisian troops somewhere constructing the things.

"Horse" is not as obvious, unless someone viewed them as a type of sawhorse,
in which case "frizzy horse" is some kind of cognate to the US slang term
"sawbuck" for a ten-dollar bill.

MWCD10 gives "frizz" (verb) the same year, 1668, and derivation from French
"friser", which does NOT imply that in the 1660's Frisian women wore their
hair in Afros (or 'froed their horses).  (Memo to self: it is pure
coincidence that English has the pairs freeze/froze and frizz/froed.)

        - Jim Landau