métis

Forms

métis (feminine métisse, masculine plural métis, feminine plural métisses)^[1] Old French mestis, mestiz; the spelling métis appears in 1669.^[2][3][4] From the 16th to the 18th century the forms mestif, métif (feminine mestive) were also used, with a change of suffix.^[3][5][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French mestis, inherited from Late Latin mixtīcius (“born of a mixed race”), a derivative of mixtus (“mixed”), the past participle of misceō (“to mix”).^{[2][3][5][4][6]}

The final /s/ is pronounced because of the forms metice and mestice, common in the 17th and 18th centuries, which are probably adaptations of Portuguese mestiço (“of mixed blood”) (14th century) or Spanish mestizo (1600), words of the same Late Latin origin.^[2][3][4] Bloch and Wartburg explain the pronunciation from the feminine instead.^[5] The modern sense of a person of mixed parentage also came from the Iberian word.^[3][5]

The Grand Robert and the GLLF date the word from the late 12th century, with mestiz in Girart de Roussillon;^[7][4] the TLFi treats the form in that text as Old Occitan mestiz, recorded from the first half of the 12th century in the sense “of low birth, of mixed blood”.^[2]

It is also cognate with Italian meticcio.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In a 13th-century manuscript of a French translation of the Digest, mestis means “made half of one thing and half of another”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the adjective was applied socially, to people “of low birth” (1288, in Renart le Nouvel).^[2][3] The sense “bred from two breeds” was first used of animals, as in chien mestis “mongrel dog” (1338, 1377),^[2][3] and then of people: in 1559 Amyot uses mestif of Greeks whose mother came from another people than the father.^[2][3]

From 1615 travellers' accounts use metice, given as a local word, for a person born of a white man and an Indian woman or the reverse; this is the sense taken from Portuguese, and the noun use dates from the same time.^[2][3] Buffon uses the noun for an animal of mixed breed in 1754.^[2] The older meaning “made of two things” survives in textiles: toile métisse (1949) and tissu métis (1959) are cloth woven with a cotton warp and a linen weft.^[4][8]

The derivative métissage (1837) and the verb métisser (1874) are now used figuratively of mixed cultures and ideas.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – Mestis “made half of one thing, half of another” in a manuscript of the Digest.^[2]
• 1288 – Renart le Nouvel uses it for “of low birth”.^[2][3]
• 1338 – First used of a dog bred from two breeds.^[2][3]
• 1559 – Amyot uses the variant mestif of people of mixed descent.^[2][3]
• 1615 – Pyrard's travel account gives metice for a person of mixed white and Indian parentage.^[2][3]
• 1669 – The spelling métis is recorded by Widerhold.^[2][3]
• 1754 – Buffon uses the noun for an animal of mixed breed.^[2]
• 1837 – The derivative métissage appears.^[3]
• 1949 – Toile métisse is recorded for a cotton and linen cloth.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: born of parents of different ethnic origin, mixed-race.^[8][9][10]
2. Of an animal or plant: crossbred from different breeds or varieties.^[9][10][2]
3. (textiles) Woven with a cotton warp and a linen weft: toile métisse.^[8]
4. (obsolete) Made half of one thing and half of another.^[8][2]

Noun

1. A person of mixed parentage.^[8][9]
2. (textiles) A cloth of cotton and linen.^[9][8]

Word family

• métissage
• métisser

Related words

• mêler
• mixte
• méteil
• Latin mixtīcius

Usage notes

In Canada Métis, with a capital, names a people of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry, one of the country's three Aboriginal peoples.^[1] In French Polynesia the noun demi is used in the same sense as métis.^[3]

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 p q r s t 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 k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/2, 195a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)