chaloir

Forms

chaloir (defective)^[1] Old French third person singular chielt (9th century), chalt (about 1100) and chaut (about 1175).^[2] Anglo-Norman also had caleir, chaleir and kaloir.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French chaloir, inherited from Latin caleō (“to be warm”).^[2][4][1][5] The Latin verb meant “to be hot” in its proper sense from Plautus on, and figuratively “to be anxious, to be on hot coals” from Cicero;^[2] from “to get heated about something” it came in popular Latin to mean “to matter, to concern”.^[4][6] The TLFi compares the same image of heat and cold in the French idiom for “it leaves me indifferent”.^[2]

Cognate with Italian calere (“to matter”), Old Occitan caler, Spanish caler and Catalan caldre (“to be necessary”);^[4][1] in the southern dialects of France the Occitan verb now means “must, be necessary”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first found as chielt “it matters” in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (9th century), in the line dont lei nonque chielt “which never mattered to her”.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Throughout Old French the impersonal verb, used with an indirect object, meant “to matter to, to concern”, mostly in negative and interrogative clauses: the Chanson de Roland has Ne lui chalt, sire, de quel mort nous mourions “He does not care, lord, what death we die”.^[7][3] Its present participle, used as a noun, gave chaland, first “a person who takes an interest, a protector” and later “a regular customer”.^[6][4] Old French also had the negative nonchaloir, and the verb survives indirectly in nonchalant.^[6][4]

Furetière called it an old word in 1690, and it went out of use after that date.^[2][6] Only the third person singular chaut remains, fixed in peu me chaut or peu m'en chaut “little do I care”; the other forms are rare and old-fashioned.^[8][9][6] Writers kept it as a literary archaism: Régnier even used it as a reflexive verb.^[7][2]

Timeline

• 800s – Chielt “it matters” appears in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.^[2][7]
• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland has the form chalt.^[2][7]
• c. 1175 – Chrétien de Troyes uses chaut.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière describes it as an old word.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal, archaic or literary) To matter, to be of importance to someone, used almost only in negative and interrogative clauses.^[2][9][8]
2. Peu me chaut, peu m'en chaut: little do I care, it makes no difference to me.^[9][8]

Word family

• nonchalant
• nonchaloir

Related words

• chaud
• chaleur
• Latin caleō

Usage notes

In peu me chaut the verb is pronounced [ʃo].^[9] The subjunctive chaille is still found in literary prose, as in Anatole France's pour peu qu'il vous en chaille “if it matters to you at all”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 83a
6. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert