mitiger

Forms

mitiger^[1] Middle French mittiger (about 1355) and mitiguer; the spelling mitiger is found in Paré about 1560.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mītigō (“to soften, make mild, calm”).^[5][6][7] The Latin verb is formed from mītis (“mild, ripe, tender”) and agō (“to do, make”).^[2][8] Rey links the adjective to an Indo-European root also seen in Old Irish móith (“soft”) and Welsh mwydion (“soft parts”).^[6] The verb appears first as Middle French mittiger and mitiguer, the latter close to the Latin form.^[2][3][5]

Cognate with Old Occitan mitigar, Spanish mitigar and Italian mitigare.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pierre Bersuire's translation of Livy, about 1355, has it of people: the senators tried every way de mittiger le plebe envers lui “to calm the common people towards him”.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “calm, appease (a person)” went out of use after the 17th century.^[6] In law, mitiguer la peine “to lighten the penalty” is found in 1558; in the same century the verb was used of easing pain or making something less harsh or less strict.^[5][6][8] In 1714 Fénelon used the past participle as a noun, les mitigés, for people of moderate opinions, a use now dated.^[5][6]

A physical sense, “make less acid”, recorded from 1812, stayed rare and has disappeared.^[6] By extension the verb came to mean “vary, make less uniform” (Balzac, 1850), a sense that lives on mainly in the participle used as an adjective, mitigé “mixed” (1893); Rey explains it by turns such as mitigé de and by the pull of mi- “half” and of mixte.^[5][6] The verb itself is now dated and literary, and the technical noun mitigeur “single-lever mixer tap” (1968) was formed from it.^[5][9][6]

Timeline

• c. 1355 – Bersuire's Livy uses it for calming the people.^[5][6]
• 1558 – Mitiguer la peine appears in law.^[5][6]
• c. 1560 – The spelling mitiger is found in Paré.^[3][2]
• 1574 – First used intransitively, of an affair becoming less painful.^[5]
• 1714 – Fénelon uses les mitigés for people of moderate views.^[5][6]
• 1812 – The sense “make less acid” is recorded.^[6]
• 1850 – Balzac uses it for “vary, make less uniform”.^[5][6]
• 1893 – Mitigé de “mixed with” appears in Courteline.^[5][6]
• 1968 – The derived noun mitigeur is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (dated) To make less acid, sweeten; in medicine, to lessen the effects of something.^[5][1]
2. (dated, literary) To make something less painful or harsh, to mitigate or soften it; in law, to lighten a sentence.^[5][9][1]
3. (dated, literary) To make a doctrine or rule less strict or absolute, to temper it.^[5][2]
4. (dated, literary) To make a person less violent or less unbending.^[5][8]
5. (dated) To mix something with something else so as to make it less pure or austere.^[5][10]

Word family

• mitigeur

Related words

• mitigation
• Latin mītis

Usage notes

In current use the verb survives mainly in the past participle mitigé “mixed, lukewarm”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)