Etymologically
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goutte

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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)