écourter

Forms

écourter^[1] Old French escurter (12th century) and escourter (13th century); écourter from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French é- + court¹ + -er, first as escurter.^[3][4][5] The prefix, from Latin ex-, has an intensive value here.^[2] Littré and Wiktionary instead trace it to Late Latin excurtō, from curtus (“short”).^[6][1] Old French also had the much used verb escourcier, of the same meaning but from another form.^[6]

Compare Italian scortare, Occitan escortar and the Walloon chorter.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket (1174–1176) it means to make shorter: Thomas had the skirts and sleeves of his cowl cut short, and Robert del Broc had docked the tail of Thomas's packhorse, li out sun sumier de la coue escurté.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

From the first records the verb was used both of clothes and of an animal's tail.^[3] Furetière gives the sense “to make too short” in 1690.^[3] The sense “to cut short (in time), abridge” is recorded in 1846, in Dumas's Monte-Cristo,^[3] and the DHLF notes that the verb is now used mostly of a conversation, of speech or a text.^[7] The rare noun écourtement dates from 1891 (Renan), and Canadian French formed écourticher “to shorten too much” (1909).^[3]

Timeline

• 1174–1176 – Escurter “to make shorter” and “to dock (a tail)” in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.^[3]
• 16th century – The spelling écourter.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière gives the sense “to make too short”.^[3]
• 1846 – Dumas uses it for shortening in time.^[3]
• 1891 – Renan uses the noun écourtement.^[3]
• 1909 – Écourticher is recorded in Canada by Dionne.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (rare) To make shorter in length: écourter sa moustache, écourter une robe.^[5][3]
2. To dock an animal, cutting its tail or ears: écourter un chien.^[3][5][6]
3. To shorten in time, curtail: écourter ses vacances, écourter une réunion.^[5][3][1]
4. To cut too short, truncate: écourter une citation.^[5][6]
5. (reflexive) S'écourter: to become shorter, to be cut too short.^[6][1]

Word family

• écourtement
• écourticher

Related words

• court¹
• raccourcir
• accourcir
• Latin curtus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert