datte

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dat/^[1]

Forms

datte f (plural dattes)^[1] Date, dade (about 1180), datle, dacte^[2][3][4][5]; datte from 1575, perhaps after Italian.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Occitan datil (after 1288) rather than Italian dattero (before 1342), which fits the sounds less well;^[2][3][6][7] a Romance intermediary is needed to explain the French form, though the Italian spelling may have influenced “datte”.^[2][3] Both come from Latin dactylus (“date”), from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”), from the long shape of the fruit.^{[2][3][6][1][5]} The REW takes the French word from Italian.^[8] It is a doublet of dactyle.^[1]

The link with “dactylus” was still felt in the 17th century, when Furetière wrote that one ought to spell it “dacte”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman d'Alexandre (about 1180) has date for the fruit of the date palm;^[2][3] the 13th-century Livre des métiers lists dates, figues among dried fruit.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the fruit was also called prune de datte (Thevet, 1575) or prune datte (Olivier de Serres, 1600); Nicot (1606) has datte.^[2][5] The tree is the dattier (datier 1236).^[3][6]

Like prune or guigne, the word took a negative figurative value in popular speech: c'est comme des dattes ! “no chance!” (Courteline, 1886), des dattes ! “nothing doing!”, and ne pas en fiche une datte “to do nothing at all” (1897).^[3][4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1180 – Date (Roman d'Alexandre).^[2][3]
• 1236 – Datier, the date palm.^[3]
• 1575 – Prune de datte; the spelling datte.^[2][3]
• 1606 – Datte (Nicot).^[2]
• 1886 – C'est comme des dattes ! (Courteline).^[2]
• 1897 – Ne pas en foutre une datte (Jehan Rictus).^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A date, the sweet fruit of the date palm: régime de dattes, datte fourrée.^[9][1]
2. (popular, dated) Des dattes !: nothing doing!^[4][3]; ne pas en fiche une datte: to do nothing at all.^[4][3]

Word family

• dattier

Related words

• dactyle
• doigt
• English date

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 2b
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert