attacher

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.ta.ʃe/^[1]

Forms

attacher^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is not entirely clear.^[2] The usual explanation is a change of prefix from Old French estachier (“to fasten, fix”) (early 13th century), a derivative of estache (“stake, post”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]} which appears in the very sentence of the Song of Roland that first has the verb: A une estache l'ont atachet cil serf.^[2][8] The intermediate sense must have been “to fix with a stake, tie to a post”.^[3] That noun is from Frankish *stakka (“stake”);^[2][3] Rey notes that the double consonant needed to explain it is unsolved, since the Germanic words used to reconstruct it have a single one.^[2][3] Wiktionary instead gives Gothic *𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌺𐌺𐌰 (*stakka), also the source of Italian stacca and Spanish estaca.^[1]

Pierre Guiraud proposed instead Vulgar Latin *attacticō (“to lay hands on”), from attingō (“to touch”), which would connect it with attaquer, a word confused with it in the 16th century.^[2][4] That verb is in fact its doublet, borrowed from Italian.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has A une estache l'ont atachet cil serf, “those serfs tied him to a stake”.^[8][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 12th century it had the figurative sense “to bind by a tie” of constraint, duty, subjection or love, chiefly in the reflexive, in step with attachement; much later (1622) it meant “to join in the mind”.^[2] From the mid-17th century attacher quelqu'un à and s'attacher quelqu'un mean to take into one's service, whence the noun attaché.^[2] S'attacher also means of a thing “to be joined to” (1574) and of a person s'attacher à faire, “to apply oneself to”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Atachet, Chanson de Roland.^[8]
• 12th century – Figurative “to bind by affection or duty”.^[2]
• c. 1160 – The noun attache.^[3]
• 13th century – attachement.^[3]
• 1574 – S'attacher of things.^[2]
• 1622 – “To join in the mind”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tie, fasten, attach: attacher une chèvre à un arbre, attacher ses cheveux.^[6][1]
2. To bind by ties of affection or dependence, être attaché à, to be attached to.^[1][2]
3. To attribute.^[1][6]
4. To take into one's service.^[2]
5. S'attacher: to fasten; to become fond of, s'attacher à faire, to apply oneself to doing.^[1][2]

Word family

• attache
• attaché
• attachement
• rattacher
• rattachement

Related words

• taquet
• attaquer
• étai

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 199b
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette