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Questions tagged [étymologie]

Questions sur l'origine des mots et leur dérivation depuis des racines venues du latin, du grec et d'autres langues.

438 questions
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Why are the words poison and poisson so similar?

I recently discovered that the words poison and poisson, meaning poison and fish in English are very similar, despite not being contextually even close. Might it be that fish might rot and become poisonous? I haven't found anything that might even…
William Brochmann
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Etymology of "queue" from "cue"

Queue has such a strange spelling (80% of it is vowels!) that I wanted to see where the word came from. I searched for its origin at Etymonline.com, which had this to say: queue (n.): late 15c., "band attached to a letter with seals dangling on the…
Nicole
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Why does "enceinte" mean both "pregnant" and "speaker"?

I just came across the phrase "enceinte bluetooth", which caught me off-guard, since I had only heard the word "enceinte" to mean "pregnant". Why do these ideas share a word? Is there some reasonable explanation that would be apparent to a native…
Timothy J. Aveni
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Etymology of the word "mas"

In the South of France properties are often called things like Mas Pauline. What is the etymology of the word mas? I managed to find a short definition in the Collins French to English dictionary but no etymology. The definition is traditional…
Simd
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Where did the initial t come from in tante?

I've looked up the etymology of tante, but it just says it comes from Old French ante without saying how it gained the initial "t". Where did this "t" come from? See "tante" on Wiktionary, Etymologie de TANTE on CNTRL.fr.
CJ Dennis
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Do the words “avalanche” and “avaler” have common etymology?

Since avalanche is a huge amount of snow swallowing stuff and avaler means to swallow, I wonder if they have the same origin. (They also look quite alike and the participe présent is even closer: avalant) Also, if someone could mention a good online…
psygo
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Are “sillage” and “sillon” related?

Je viens d’apprendre le substantif sillage et j’y ai noté une similitude avec sillon. Les deux signifient un désordre longitudinal qui reste comme rayure ou trace à la surface d’une substance molle après le passage d’un objet rigide — la coque d’un…
Paul Tanenbaum
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Comment « rat » et « loup » ont-ils évolué pour signifier « manquer » ?

rater : (Date à préciser) Dénominal de rat[1] et -er, dérivé de l'expression prendre un rat (« ne pas lâcher son coup, avoir des ratés ») → voir louper fait sur loup. Ce livre (découvert avec Google) associe le rat à un anathème, laquelle…
user1995
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Comment « moment » a-t-il évolué de « courte durée » pour signifier « importance » ?

moment (n.) [<--] mid-14c., "very brief portion of time, instant," in moment of time, from Old French moment (12c.) "moment, minute; importance, weight, value" or directly from Latin momentum "movement, motion; moving power; alteration,…
user1995
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Étymologie de « auparavant »

[D'après Wiktionary:] → voir au, part et avant. [D'après CNRTL:] ... Composé de au (a-1*), par* et avant*; cf. ca 1243 par avant adv. ... Le morphème au milieu, est-il « part » ou « par » ? Que signifie-t-il ici ? Ces 3 morphèmes : comment se…
user1995
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Roumadjade in southern France

From Thérèse Desqueyroux (François Mauriac, 1927): le gâteau dénommé fougasse ou roumadjade the cake called fougasse or roumadjade Footnote on these last terms: Fougasse est le nom donné à une brioche en couronne, faite dans le Sud-Ouest, qui…
Luke Sawczak
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How do soit's 3 significations semantically appertain each other [1] 3SG PRS subjunctive of être, [2] "let be" in math, and [3] "either ... or"?

What's the semantic field of soit? What notions underlie these 3 significations that look completely unrelated to me? Alain Rey, ed. Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, 4th edn. 2 vols. Paris: Le Robert, 2016 (1st edn. 1992). Anyone…
user1995
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Comment « re » + « partir » se fédèrent-ils sémantiquement pour signifier « répliquer » ?

Quelles notions sémantiques sous-tendent « re » + « partir » avec « riposter aussitôt à un propos » ? repartee (n.) 1640s, "quick remark," from French repartie "an answering blow or thrust" (originally a fencing term), noun use of fem. past…
user1995
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"Collège" vs "Collégien": why is the accent different?

I recently found out that collège and collégien have different accents (accent grave and accent aigu respectively). But since collégien is from collège, I feel like they should have the same accent. Is there any reason for those words to have…
Cynthia
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Why is "aur-" the future stem of "avoir", instead of "avr-"?

In many Romance languages the future tense is conjugated with the infinitive stem + combining present of "to have". For example: ES haber → habr- + hé = habré IT avere → avr- + ho = avrò But the stem in French is aur-, not avr-. I'm aware that the…
iBug
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