dartre

Forms

dartre f (plural dartres)^[1] Old French dertre (13th century), then dartre (1478).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French dertre, inherited from Late Latin derbita (“tetter”), a Late Latin word of Gaul known from glosses, often in the plural.^[2][4][3][5] The classical word was Latin impetigo.^[3] The Latin word is probably of Celtic origin.^[2][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg compare Breton dervoed;^[5][3] Rey compares Welsh tarwyden and the English word tetter, with ⟨b⟩ for /v/, and suggests an Indo-European stem Proto-Indo-European *derw-, perhaps an extension of the root of Ancient Greek δέρω (dérō, “to flay”).^[5][3] Littré reports that Diez weighed the English word as a source but found a Celtic origin harder, a view Littré himself did not share.^[7] Littré also notes that in Ménage's time the provinces still kept the form with ⟨e⟩.^[7]

Cognate with Milanese derbeda, Piedmontese derbi, Engadine dert and Provençal derbi.^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as dertre in the 13th-century Livre des simples médecines, naming a skin disease.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg date dertre to 1314, and the GLLF cites it from the surgeon Henri de Mondeville in that year.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named a skin complaint with reddening and itching or scaling.^[3][2] The form dartre is found in 1478, in Panis's translation of Guy de Chauliac, and Ambroise Paré still used both dartres and dertres in the 16th century.^[2][10][7] By the 19th century, Littré notes, it had become a popular word with no precise meaning for physicians.^[7]

Writers from Hugo to Claudel used it figuratively for a blemish or a creeping corruption.^[2] Larousse also gives technical senses: a roughness on the surface of a metal casting, and ringworm in cattle.^[11]

Timeline

• 13th century – Dertre appears in the Livre des simples médecines.^[2][3]
• 1314 – Henri de Mondeville uses dertre.^[9][5]
• Late 14th or early 15th century – The adjective dertreux is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1478 – The form dartre appears in Panis's translation of Guy de Chauliac.^[2][10]
• 16th century – Ambroise Paré writes of dartres squameuses.^[7]
• 1845 – Dartrier, a tree whose seed was used against tetters, is recorded.^[3]
• 1901 – Dartrose, a fungal disease of the potato, is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A red or white, scaly patch on the skin, with reddening and itching, as in some forms of eczéma or impétigo: une dartre sur la joue.^[12][11][9]
2. (figurative, literary) A blemish or creeping corruption.^[2]
3. (metallurgy) A rough patch on the surface of a casting.^[11]
4. (veterinary) A ringworm lesion in cattle, or the disease itself.^[11]

Word family

• dartreux
• dartrose

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 46a
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, 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. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert