étouffer

Pronunciation

• IPA: /e.tu.fe/^[1]

Forms

étouffer^[1] Old French estofer (1230), estouffer (14th century); étouffer from 1564.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is an alteration of Old French estoper (“to stop up, plug”) (see étouper, étoupe), under the influence of another Old French verb, estofer (“to stuff, pad”) (see étoffer), which is Germanic.^[3][4][2] Bloch and Wartburg explain it as a crossing of Latin stuppō (“to stop with tow”) with that verb: the new word took the vowel of one and the consonant of the other, and its meaning, at first “to fill”, moved to the modern sense in the 15th century.^[5] The Grand Robert starts from a popular Latin *stuffō (“to stuff with tow”).^[6] Littré reports Diez's derivation from a Romance stem meaning “vapour” and Scheler's link with German stopfen.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The chanson de geste Gaidon (1230) has estofer for suffocating a living being.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

From this sense came the old oath la peste l'étouffe !; from the 15th century étouffer son ennemi meant to kill him.^[4] The Metz Parable of the Sower (1285) uses it for choking plants, and, from the 14th century it meant putting out a fire.^[3][4] The intransitive “to breathe with difficulty” appears in 1559, hence “to be too hot”, and s'étouffer de rire in 1671.^[4] In the 16th century it took figurative senses: to suppress an opinion or feeling (1564), to muffle a sound (d'Aubigné), and later étouffer une affaire, to hush it up (1671).^[3][4][2] Cooks use it from 1767 for cooking in a closed pot, whence à l'étouffée.^[3][8][4] The silkworm breeders' étouffage kills the chrysalis in the cocoon.^[3][7]

Timeline

• 1230 – Estofer “to suffocate”, in Gaidon.^[3]
• 1285 – Of choking plants.^[3]
• 1559 – Intransitive, “to breathe with difficulty”.^[4]
• 1564 – “To suppress (a feeling)”.^[3]
• Late 16th century – “To muffle (a sound)”, in d'Aubigné.^[3][4]
• 1671 – S'étouffer de rire, étouffer une affaire.^[4]
• 1767 – The cooking sense.^[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To kill by preventing breathing; to smother, suffocate: étouffer quelqu'un avec un oreiller.^[9][3]
2. To make breathing difficult: la chaleur m'étouffe; intransitively, to be stifled, to choke.^[9][10]
3. To put out a fire by depriving it of air; to stop plants from growing.^[4][3]
4. To muffle a sound.^[3][9]
5. (figurative) To suppress, stifle an opinion, a feeling or an affair, étouffer dans l'œuf, to nip in the bud.^[9][1]
6. S'étouffer: to choke: s'étouffer de rire.^[4][1]
7. (cooking) To cook in a closed pot.^[3][8]

Word family

• étouffement
• étouffoir
• étouffant
• étouffée
• étouffage
• touffeur

Related words

• étoupe
• étoffer

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)