fesse

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɛs/^[1]

Forms

fesse f (plural fesses)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French fesse, inherited from Vulgar Latin *fissa, meaning both “anus” and “buttocks”, a neuter plural taken as a feminine of Latin fissum (“cleft, slit”), the noun use of the past participle of findō (“to split”), the source of fendre.^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary notes that the word first referred to the cleft between the buttocks, and that the verb fesser is unrelated though it has converged with it.^[1] Littré cites a 14th-century hunting treatise which distinguishes the fleshy masses from the cleft between them, apparently the first meaning of the word.^[6]

The word replaced Old French nache, nage, used from the 12th to the 16th century, from Vulgar Latin *natica, from Latin natis (“buttock”).^[2][3][4] This sense is found only in French.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is in Courtois d'Arras (about 1200); the Grand Robert and Petit Robert date it to 1360, and Littré quotes Machaut, where a horse bites a man en la fesse.^[2][7][8][6]

Semantic evolution

Fesse is used in phrases where it competes with derrière and more often with cul: avoir chaud aux fesses (1743), n'y aller que d'une fesse (1611, Cotgrave), to do something half-heartedly.^[3][9] Coûter la peau des fesses, to cost a fortune, seems later than coûter la peau (1897, Alphonse Allais), and prendre par la peau des fesses is recorded in 1904.^[3] By analogy sailors use it for the rounded part of a ship's stern (1736).^[2][3] In familiar use de fesse, like de cul, means pornographic.^[3] Derivatives include fessier (16th century) and fessu (13th century).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – In Courtois d'Arras.^[2]
• Mid-14th century – In Guillaume de Machaut.^[9][6]
• 1611 – Cotgrave: n'y aller que d'une fesse.^[9]
• 1736 – Aubin: the rounded part of a ship's stern.^[2]
• 1743 – Avoir chaud aux fesses.^[3]
• 1904 – Prendre par la peau des fesses.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A buttock, les fesses, the buttocks, the bottom.^[8][1]
2. (familiar) Coûter la peau des fesses: to cost a fortune, serrer les fesses: to be afraid.^[3][9]
3. (familiar) De fesse(s): erotic, pornographic.^[3][8]
4. (nautical) The rounded part of the stern of a ship.^[2][9]

Word family

• fessier
• fessu

Related words

• fendre
• fessée
• Latin fissum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 581b
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse