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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

When did “nid-de-pie” begin to be used with the sense of “lookout point”?

Littré has a military term "Nid de pie" described as follows (no date)

Terme militaire. Nid de pie, genre de logement d’où l’on peut tirer sans se découvrir, et que l’assiégeant construit dans un ouvrage dont il s’est rendu maître.

On the other hand, Cnrtl cites it as a maritime term (1851) :

Nid de corbeau, de pie. Poste d’observation, situé en haut du mât avant de certains navires, où se poste l’homme de vigie

http://www.lalanguefrancaise.com has another totally unrelated maritime meaning for it :

Terme de marine. Nid de pie, petit sac en filet contenant les outils des ouvriers qui travaillent au grément du bord.

Larousse you mentioned has both meanings and a date for the military one :

  • Retranchement établi par l’assaillant sur une brèche, afin de s’y maintenir (xvie-xviie s.)
  • Poste d’observation placé assez haut sur le premier mât de certains bâtiments et où se tient l’homme de vigie.

Interestingly, the military term in Larousse does not include the notion of "height" so it has little in common with the other definition. It could be related to the animal’s supposed treacherous behaviour (setting up one’s nest on someone else’s property = fortifying a conquered part of someone else’s castle?). In this case the two sayings could have a completely separate origin.

The other possibility, as the military term seems to be older could be an evolution in the meaning, leading to the maritime term.

As for the dates, 1604 fits prefectly within the XVI-XVII centuries of the Larousse’s military definition, but one can’t be sure it included the notion of "Observation point" as it could be more recent.

Regarding the alternate translation of adrianes,

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it is interesting to note that durillon, cor aux pieds also used to be called agacins and that this noun derives from agace, a former regional name for pie (eng: magpie, spa: urraca).

This agacin was also called œil d’agacin (now œil de perdrix), an expression that comes from the 7th century Latin oculus pullinus (œil de poule) with the same meaning.

Finally, in the book 6 of his History of Animals, Aristotle talk about Adria’s hens and a comment in Barthélémy Saint-Hilaire’s French translation states that these hens were sometimes called adrianes, which might close the loop…

Les poules d’Adria. Elles sont encore citées dans ce passage du Traité de la Génération, pour leur fécondité et leur petitesse, Les manuscrits sont en général d’accord sur le nom de ces poules pour les appeler adjectivement Adrianiquee; quelques éditeurs les appellent Adrianes. Adria était le nom de deux villes en Italie, l’une à l’embouchure du Pô, et qui a donné sans doute son nom à la mer Adriatique; l’autre, dans le Picénum. Il est probable qu’il s’agit ici de l’une des deux.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?