éternuer

Forms

éternuer^[1] Old French esternuder (11th century) and esternuer (1176–1181); the spelling éternuer is recorded in 1636 by Monet.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French esternuer, earlier esternuder, inherited from Latin sternūtō (“to sneeze often”), a frequentative of sternuō (“to sneeze”).^[2][4][5][6] Rey calls the Latin verb a word of expressive origin, found in various forms in the Indo-European languages,^[5] and Littré compared Ancient Greek πτάρνυμαι (ptárnumai).^[7]

Cognate with Italian starnutare, Old Occitan estornudar, Catalan esternudar and Spanish estornudar, and Walloon stierni.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is esternuder in Rashi's French glosses (11th century), with the Latin sense “to sneeze”.^[2][3][5] Chrétien de Troyes has esternuer in the Chevalier de la Charrette (1176–1181).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the Latin sense.^[5] The Revolution gave the grim slang phrase éternuer dans le sac “to be guillotined”, which Rey dates to Hébert in 1791, with the variants dans le son, dans la sciure and dans le panier; the GLLF dates éternuer dans le son to Balzac (before 1850) and dans le sac to Delvau (1867).^[5][3] Like tousser, it is also used of things that make a similar noise, such as an engine.^[5]

Littré recorded joking transitive uses, as in il m'a éternué son bonjour “he sneezed his good morning at me”.^[7]

Timeline

• 11th century – Esternuder appears in Rashi's glosses.^[2][3]
• 1176–1181 – Chrétien de Troyes uses esternuer.^[2]
• late 13th century – The noun esternuement appears.^[5]
• 1636 – Monet records the spelling éternuer.^[3]
• 1791 – Hébert uses éternuer dans le sac “to be guillotined”.^[5]
• 1839 – The noun éternueur appears.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To sneeze: Le pollen le fait éternuer.^[8][9][2]
2. Poudre à éternuer: sneezing powder.^[8][3]
3. (slang, dated) Éternuer dans le son, dans le sac: to be guillotined.^[3][5]
4. (by analogy) Of an engine, to splutter.^[5]

Word family

• éternuement
• éternueur

Related words

• sternutation
• sternutatoire
• Latin sternuō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 261b
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)