Etymologically
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éclater

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /e.kla.te/[1]

Forms

éclater[1] Old French esclater, éclater from the 17th century.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French esclater, usually taken as borrowed from Frankish *slaitan (“to split, break”), inferred from Old High German sleizan (“to tear”) and German “verschleißen” “to wear out (clothes)”.[3][4][5][6][2] The /t/ was kept because the Germanic and the romanized forms lived side by side through the long bilingual Merovingian period; Italian schiattare would come from the matching Lombardic form.[6][4] Wiktionary gives Old High German “skleizan” or Frankish *slītan, from Proto-Germanic *slītaną (“to tear apart”).[1]

Pierre Guiraud proposed instead a popular Latin “*exclaccitare”, from the imitative root “clacc-” of claquer, citing dialect forms such as s'éclaquer de rire.[4][5] Compare Old Occitan esclatar.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Lapidaire from before 1150 has esclater once, “to come apart”; in Chrétien de Troyes's Lancelot (1176–1181) a lance shatters.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Rabelais (1552, 1564) uses it for bursting violently and noisily, flinging out pieces, and s'esclater de rire “to burst out laughing” (1552), later éclater de rire (1640).[3][4][7] From the 16th century it also meant “to shine”: Thierry (1564), and esclatant of bright colours in Montaigne.[3][7]

In Corneille (1640–1643) it means to break out suddenly, as a war or a scandal does, to lose one's temper, and to become plainly visible: sa mauvaise foi éclate.[3][4] The general sense “to make a sudden loud noise” is recorded only in 1671.[3][4] About 1968 s'éclater came to mean “to have a great time”.[8][1]

Timeline

  • before 1150 – Esclater, Lapidaire.[3]
  • 1176–1181 – A lance shatters, Chrétien de Troyes.[3]
  • 1552 – S'esclater de rire, Rabelais.[3]
  • 1564 – “To shine”, Thierry.[3]
  • 1640 – Éclater de rire; to break out, Corneille.[3]
  • 1671 – “To make a loud noise”, Pomey.[3]
  • c. 1968 – S'éclater “to have a ball”.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To burst, explode, shatter: la bombe a éclaté, un pneu qui éclate.[8][1]
  2. To ring out, resound: des applaudissements éclatèrent, éclater de rire, éclater en sanglots.[3][1]
  3. To break out suddenly: la guerre éclata, un scandale a éclaté; to blow up in anger.[3][4]
  4. To be obvious, shine forth: la vérité éclate, (literary) to sparkle.[3][1]
  5. To split up, break apart (of a group).[4]
  6. (familiar) S'éclater: to have a great time.[8][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert