Etymologically
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chute

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Pronunciation

Forms

chute f (plural chutes)[1] Middle French cheute (about 1360), written chûte by the Académie in 1694; the modern spelling chute from 1762.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a reshaping, after the participle cheüe, of Old French cheoite (“a fall”),[3][4][5][6] the feminine past participle of choir “to fall” used as a noun,[3][2] inherited from Vulgar Latin *cadecta, a popular participle formed on the model of collēctus;[3][4][5][7] cheüe itself is from *cadūta.[3][1] Both go back to Latin cadō (“to fall”).[2][5]

Compare Italian caduta, Spanish caída and Portuguese caída.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is une chute de cheval, a fall from a horse, in Froissart (about 1360);[3][8] Old French cheoite is found earlier, in Benoît's Chronique des ducs de Normandie.[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides falling, it came to mean the loss of hair (1534), the collapse of a building (before 1558) and the fall of a river, then a waterfall (1671).[3] Figuratively it is a fall from power or grace: the collapse of a state (1587), moral fall (1680), and the failure of a play or author (1690).[3][5] In rhetoric la chute is the close of a sentence or stanza (Guez de Balzac),[3][5] whence the modern punch line of a story.[1][6]

The verb chuter is from 1828.[4]

Timeline

  • 12th century – Old French cheoite.[2][3]
  • c. 1360 – Cheute de cheval (Froissart).[3][2]
  • 1534 – Cheute des cheveulx.[3]
  • 1587 – The fall of a country or regime.[3]
  • 1671 – Chute d'eau.[3]
  • 1690 – The failure of a play.[3][5]
  • 1828 – Chuter.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fall: faire une chute.[6][1]
  2. A drop or decline: chute des prix, chute de température.[6][1]
  3. A downfall or collapse: la chute de l'Empire.[6][1]
  4. Chute d'eau: a waterfall.[6][1]
  5. The punch line of a joke or story.[1][6]
  6. (religion) The Fall of man.[6][5]

Word family

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  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 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 2, 25a
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette