Etymologically
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guetter

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡɛ.te/[1]
  • IPA: /ɡe.te/[1]

Forms

guetter[1] Old French guaitier (about 1100), gaitier, gueitier (Chrétien de Troyes), guetter (1538, Robert Estienne).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French guaitier, from Frankish *wahtōn (“to keep watch”),[2][3][5][6] reconstructed from Old High German “wahtēn” “to keep watch”, Middle Dutch wachten and English watch, and is a derivative of the noun “*wahta” (see guet, guette).[2][3] The Petit Robert relates the family to Latin “vegēre” and “vigēre” (see veiller).[7] Wiktionary notes that English wait comes from the same source through Anglo-Norman.[1]

Compare Old Occitan gaitar and Italian guatare.[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has guaitier for keeping watch over a dead man.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old French it competed with garder, which partly explains its development: after “to watch over (people, to protect them)” (Wace, about 1130–1140), a sense kept regionally and in Canadian French (guetter les bêtes), it came to mean secret watching: spying on someone with bad intentions (about 1135), lying in wait to surprise (1160–1174) and waiting impatiently for something to come (12th century).[2][3] The whole range of meaning was fixed in the 12th century, and the derivatives are old: guet (1160), guetteur (1190), aux aguets.[3][5] In Normandy and the north it also means simply “to look”.[3][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Guaitier in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • c. 1135 – “To spy on”.[2]
  • c. 1130–1140 – “To guard”, in Wace.[2]
  • 1160 – Guet.[5]
  • 1160–1174 – “To lie in wait”, in Wace.[2]
  • 1190 – Guetteur.[5]
  • 1538 – The spelling guetter.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To watch (intently), lie in wait for: le chat guette la souris.[7][1]
  2. To watch out for, wait for: guetter une occasion, guetter le facteur.[7][1]
  3. (figurative, of a thing) To threaten, loom over: la maladie le guette.[7][1]
  4. (Canada, regional) To watch over (animals).[3]

Word family

  • guetteur
  • guet
  • aguet
  • guet
  • guetteur
  • guet-apens
  • aguets

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette