étage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /e.taʒ/^[1]

Forms

étage m (plural étages)^[1] Old French estage; spelt étage from 1636 (Monet).^[2]

Etymology

It is Old French estage (“dwelling; stay; condition”), formed from ester (“to stand, to be (somewhere)”) with the suffix -age,^[3][4][1][5] the verb being inherited from Latin stāre (“to stand”).^[6][7] Bloch and Wartburg, the GLLF and Littré start instead from a popular Latin Vulgar Latin *stāticum in place of classical statiō;^[8][2][9] the TLFi and Bloch and Wartburg think such a Latin form unnecessary, the suffix being productive at all times.^[3][8]

Cognate with Old Occitan estatge and Italian staggio.^[9][8] The word was borrowed into German Etage and Dutch etage.^[1] Compare stage.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has Il me suirat ad Ais à mon estage “he will follow me to Aachen, to my residence”, the sense “dwelling”.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old French estage also meant a stay or term of service, and in feudal law lige estage (1249, 1283) was the vassal's obligation to reside at his lord's castle.^[4][9] About 1135 it meant “position, condition”, a sense that survives only in de bas étage “of low rank; vulgar” (1704), now understood as a metaphor of height.^[3][4]

The sense “floor, storey of a building” is in Wace (1155) and became the only living one.^[3][4] Premier étage was used of the ground floor in the 15th century, and this older usage survives in Quebec;^[4][7] in African French un étage can mean a multi-storey building.^[4] By analogy it named a shelf (1418) and any level in a set of tiers: menton à double étage “double chin” (1680), geological stages and the stages of a rocket.^[3][4][1]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Estage “dwelling” in the Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• c. 1135 – “Condition” in the Couronnement de Louis.^[3]
• 1155 – “Storey” in Wace.^[3]
• 1249 – Estage “feudal residence duty”.^[4]
• 1418 – “Shelf (of a reliquary)”.^[3]
• 1680 – Menton à double étage.^[4]
• 1704 – De bas étage.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A floor or storey of a building: habiter au troisième étage, un immeuble de dix étages.^[7][3]
2. Any of a series of superposed levels or tiers.^[2][3]
3. (geology) A stage, (ecology, climatology) a vegetation or altitude zone.^[1][4]
4. (astronautics) A rocket stage.^[1]
5. De bas étage: of low rank; of poor quality.^[3][1]

Word family

• étagement
• étager
• étagère

Related words

• ester
• stage
• Latin stō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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 j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 239b
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette