Etymologically
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mettre

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mɛtʁ/[1]

Forms

mettre[1] Old French metre, mettre from the 12th century.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French metre, inherited from Latin mittō (“to let go, release; to throw; to send”).[3][4][5][6] Rey describes the Latin verb as an expressive word with a double consonant and no sure etymology, Wiktionary traces it, probably, to Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to exchange, remove”).[4][1] From “to let go” it came to mean “to send”; in imperial Latin it drew near to pōnō (“to place”), whose uses it restricted, and in popular Latin it took the sense “to put in a given place”.[4][7][8] Later Latin added “to serve at table” (whence mets), “to cause, bring” (“mittere bellum”, 6th–8th centuries), “to spend time” (856) and “to spend money” (11th century).[4]

In eastern France, the Rhône valley and the south-west it competes in the dialects with bouter, of Frankish origin.[8] Cognate with Italian mettere, Occitan metre, Spanish meter and Portuguese meter.[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Jonas fragment of Valenciennes (first half of the 10th century) in the sense “to bring upon, cause”: the people were freed from the peril that God had decided to bring upon them.[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Given the range of the Latin verb, mettre had almost all its senses between the 10th and the 12th century, with a very large phraseology.[4] It meant to assign a person somewhere (mettre en prison, about 980), to drive out (the compound forsmedre, about 980), to bury (mettre en terre, 1050), to lay the table (metre le manger, about 1155, metre les tables, about 1165), and to put a hand to one's sword or clothes on one's body (about 1100).[3][4] Mettre le feu and mettre fin appear in Wace (1160–1174), mettre en vente in 1283 and mettre pied à terre in 1377.[3][4] From the early 12th century it also meant “to spend (time)”, and about 1170 “to devote (one's energy)”.[3][4] Mettre en boîte “to make fun of” dates from 1910.[4]

Timeline

  • First half of the 10th century – Mettreiet in the Jonas fragment of Valenciennes.[3]
  • c. 1050 – Metre an terre “to bury”, in the Vie de saint Alexis.[3]
  • c. 1100 – Metre la main a l'espee in the Chanson de Roland.[3]
  • Early 12th century – “To spend (time)”, in Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brendan.[3]
  • c. 1165 – Metre les tables “to lay the table”.[3]
  • 1283 – Metre en vente in Beaumanoir.[3]
  • 1377 – Mettre pied à terre.[3][4]
  • 1910 – Mettre en boîte “to make fun of”.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To put, place: Mettez cela ici.[10][1]
  2. To put on (clothes, jewellery): mettre son manteau.[1][4]
  3. To set, lay: mettre la table, mettre le couvert.[1][2]
  4. To take (time), spend: Il a mis deux heures pour venir.[3][4]
  5. To put into a state or situation: mettre en colère, mettre en vente.[3][10]
  6. To put on, play (a record), switch on (a device).[2]
  7. Se mettre à: to begin to: Il se met à pleurer.[1][9]

Word family

  • mise
  • remettre
  • démettre
  • entremettre
  • entremise
  • metteur
  • mettable
  • mets
  • admettre
  • commettre
  • omettre
  • permettre
  • promettre
  • soumettre
  • transmettre
  • Latin mittō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ 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. 6/2, 185a
  7. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)