Etymologically
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fête

Etymology and origin of the French word fête

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1050, Vie de saint Alexis (feste)
Inherited from
Latin festa via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (fēstus)

Pronunciation

  • IPA (France): /fɛt/[1]
  • IPA: /fɛːt/[1]
  • IPA: [feːt][1]
  • IPA: [fɛɪ̯t][1]

Forms

fête f (plural fêtes)[1] Old French feste; the spelling fête dates from the 17th century.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French feste, inherited from Latin fēsta, neuter plural, taken as a feminine noun, of fēstus (“festive, of a holiday”), “festa” stands for “festa dies” “feast day”.[4][2][5][6][1][7] Rey connects “fēstus”, like fēriae (“holidays”) (whence férié), with an Indo-European root of religious value found only in Italic.[2] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁s-.[1]

Cognate with Italian festa, Old Occitan festa, Spanish fiesta and Portuguese festa.[8][2] It was borrowed as English fête and German Fete.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) it is a celebration held on a fixed day: cascune feste se fait acomunier “at every feast he takes communion”.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

From the religious feast it came to mean any rejoicing that breaks with daily life (late 12th century), a set of organised festivities (1273), a source of pleasure (13th century), a commemoration (late 14th century) and the feast of the saint whose name one bears (1668).[2] Fête nationale appears in Mercier (1782) and spread after 1790.[2] It also meant a fair (12th century) and an uproar (13th century).[2][8] Phrases include en fête (late 13th century), faire fête à quelqu'un (1680, of a dog already in the 16th century), faire la fête “to live it up” (1879) and the ironic threat ça va être ta fête (about 1965).[2][9] In Quebec French fête means a birthday.[2][1] The compound Fête-Dieu (1521) names Corpus Christi.[2][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – Feste, Vie de saint Alexis.[4]
  • Late 12th century – A celebration, Jean Bodel.[3]
  • 1273 – Organised festivities.[2]
  • 1521 – Fête-Dieu.[2]
  • 1668 – One's saint's day.[2]
  • 1782 – Fête nationale, Mercier.[2]
  • 1859 – Fêtard.[5]
  • 1879 – Faire la fête.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A religious feast, holy day: les fêtes de Pâques, la Fête-Dieu.[10][11]
  2. A public holiday or celebration: la fête nationale, la fête de la musique.[11][2]
  3. (in the plural) The holidays, especially Christmas and New Year: joyeuses fêtes.[1]
  4. One's saint's day, name day: souhaiter sa fête à quelqu'un, (Quebec) a birthday.[1][2]
  5. A party: donner une fête, faire la fête, to party, fête foraine, a funfair.[1][11]
  6. Rejoicing: en fête, faire fête à quelqu'un, to welcome warmly, se faire une fête de, to look forward to.[2][3]
  7. (familiar) Ça va être ta fête: you're in for it.[2]

Word family

  • fêter
  • fêtard
  • festoyer
  • Fête-Dieu
  • trouble-fête
  • festif
  • festival
  • festin
  • festivité
  • férié
  • foire
  • Latin fēsta

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c 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
  5. ^ a b c 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 482a
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  10. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

  • gens · also from Latin
  • ni · also from Latin
  • trois · also from Latin
  • souvenir · also from Latin
  • eux · also from Latin
  • sembler · also from Latin
  • plein · also from Latin
  • tard · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Fête.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/f%C3%AAte. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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