écart

Forms

écart m (plural écarts)^[1] Old French escart;^[2][3] Middle French à l'escart and à l'esquart.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from French écarter (“to move apart, to separate”).^[2][4][5] The verb is usually traced to Vulgar Latin *exquartō (“to divide into four”), formed from ex- and quartus (“fourth”), like Italian squartare (“to quarter”).^[2][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg note that the sense “cut into four” survives in Italian, while French has only “separate”.^[5] Rey calls the Latin source probable only and reports Pierre Guiraud's alternative, a Gallo-Romance *excoartō (“to loosen, to disunite”), from Latin coartō (“to press together”).^[6]

An isolated escard of about 1175 in Benoît de Sainte-Maure, meaning “shift, evasion”, may belong here, or may be a copyist's error for esgard.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first certain record, about 1200 in Renaut de Montauban, has the sense “notch, incision”, which has since disappeared.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From 1274 the noun named the distance between two things.^[2] Already in 1247 it named a remote spot, the sense that survives in regional and administrative use for an outlying hamlet.^[2][6] The phrase à l'écart “in a remote place, apart” is recorded from about 1450, and later tenir quelqu'un à l'écart “to keep someone out of things”.^[2][6]

In the 17th century the word took the figurative sense of a departure from a moral or intellectual rule (1655, Molière), and that of a digression (1688, Mme de Sévigné), now dated.^[2][6] Dancing gave grand écart, the splits (1680), and bullfighting the swerve by which one avoids the bull (1903).^[6][2] The sense “difference between two quantities or values” is dated 1841 by Rey and 1864 by the TLFi.^[6][2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – First record, in Renaut de Montauban, meaning “notch, incision”.^[2]
• 1247 – Used of a remote spot.^[2][6]
• 1274 – First used of the distance between two things.^[2][7]
• c. 1450 – The phrase à l'escart appears in the Mistère du Viel Testament.^[2]
• 1655 – Molière uses it of a departure from the rules of morality or decorum.^[2]
• 1680 – Richelet records it as a dancing term.^[2]
• 1688 – Mme de Sévigné uses it for a digression.^[2]
• 1841 – First used of the difference between two values.^[6]
• 1903 – Used of a bullfighter's swerve.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gap or distance between two things, or between parts of one thing: l'écart entre les deux lignes.^[7][4][1]
2. Grand écart: the splits, with the legs stretched out in a line along the ground.^[7][8]
3. A difference between two quantities or values, especially from an average: un écart de dix euros, écart type.^[7][2][1]
4. A sudden movement aside, a swerve: le cheval fit un écart.^[2][6]
5. (figurative) A departure from a rule of morality, reason or decorum, a lapse.^[2][1]
6. À l'écart: apart, at a distance from others;^[2][6][3] à l'écart de: away from;^[2][6][3] mettre, tenir quelqu'un à l'écart: to leave someone out.^[2][6][3]
7. (administration) An outlying hamlet of a commune.^[1][6]

Word family

• écart type
• grand écart

Related words

• écarter
• écartement
• quart
• Latin quartus

Usage notes

The Grand Robert (as its numbers 2 and 3) and the TLFi treat two more words spelled écart separately.^[4][2] The card-game word (1606, Nicot) is the action of discarding and the cards discarded, a deverbal noun from the homograph of écarter meaning “to discard”, a derivative of carte.^[4][2][6] The carpentry word (1694, Corneille) is a joint of two pieces fitted into each other; its origin is obscure, perhaps connected with Old French equerve.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse