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goutte

Etymology and origin of the French word goutte

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
late 10th century, Passion of Clermont
Inherited from
Latin gutta via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (gutta)

Pronunciation

Forms

goutte f (plural gouttes)[1] Old French gote (about 980), gute, goute;[2][3][1] goutte from about 1360, the second ⟨t⟩ being restored after the Latin spelling.[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French gote, inherited from Latin gutta (“drop; spot; small particle”), an expressive formation in Latin, which also used it in architecture.[4][2][5][6] The name of the disease, gout, is the same word: the illness was put down to drops of a corrupt humour reaching the joints.[7][2][5][8] Classical Latin called gout of the feet podagra.[7]

Cognate with Italian gotta, Spanish gota, Portuguese gota, Catalan gota and Occitan gota, which also mean gout nearly everywhere.[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Clermont Passion (late 10th century) has gute for a small rounded quantity of liquid.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

As a tiny quantity it was used with ne to strengthen a negation, like pas and point: ne veoir gote “to see nothing” is in Eneas (about 1160), and survives in the playful on n'y voit goutte.[4][2] Goutte à goutte is found in 1170, and se ressembler comme deux gouttes d'eau in 1664;[2][3] Stendhal has la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase (1830).[2][3] The Ménagier de Paris (about 1393) calls the first wine running from the vat mère goute.[4]

The disease is named male gote about 1170 and goute about 1200; the word was very common from the 16th to the 18th century.[2][5] In architecture it names small cone-shaped ornaments (1568), in pharmacy a unit of measure (1700), and, from 1795 a drop of brandy, as in boire la goutte.[4][2]

Timeline

  • Late 10th century – Gute, a drop, in the Clermont Passion.[4]
  • c. 1160 – Ne veoir gote “to see nothing”.[4]
  • c. 1170 – Male gote, the disease.[2]
  • c. 1360 – The spelling goutte, in Froissart.[3]
  • 1568 – Architectural ornament, in Delorme.[4]
  • 1664 – Se ressembler comme deux gouttes d'eau.[2]
  • 1795 – “Brandy”.[4]
  • 1830 – La goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase, in Stendhal.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A drop of liquid: une goutte d'eau, il pleut à grosses gouttes, goutte à goutte, drop by drop.[10][11]
  2. A very small quantity: une goutte de café.[11][1]
  3. Se ressembler comme deux gouttes d'eau: to be as like as two peas.[12][8]
  4. (familiar) Brandy, spirits: boire la goutte.[11][2]
  5. Gouttes (plural): drops of a medicine.[2][10]
  6. (medicine) Gout: une crise de goutte.[10][11]
  7. (architecture) A small cone-shaped ornament under a triglyph.[4][3]

Word family

  • compte-gouttes
  • égoutter
  • gouttelette
  • goutteux
  • gouttière
  • dégoutter
  • égout

Usage notes

Goutte survives as a negative adverb in n'y voir goutte and n'y entendre goutte, “to see, understand nothing at all”.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 344a
  7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Goutte.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/goutte. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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