Etymologically
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moitié

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 14:02. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mwa.tje/[1]
  • IPA (Louisiana): [mo.t͡ʃe][1]

Forms

moitié f (plural moitiés)[1] Old French meitiet (1080), meitié (about 1155), moitié (12th century).[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French meitié, inherited from Latin medietās (“middle, centre, (late) half”), from its accusative “medietātem”.[4][5][6][3][7][1] The Latin noun was formed from medius (“middle”) (see mi-) and seems to have been coined by Cicero to translate Ancient Greek μεσότης (mesótēs, “mean”); he apologises for using it, and Bloch and Wartburg take it for a word of familiar speech.[4][5][6] médiété is a learned doublet.[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan meitat, Spanish mitad, Portuguese metade and Italian metà.[8] English moiety comes from the same Latin word.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) meitiet is one of the two equal parts of an uncountable whole: Demi Espaigne vus durat il en fiet, L'altre meitet avrat Rollant “he will give you half of Spain in fief, Roland will have the other half”.[4]

Semantic evolution

Of a countable whole it is in Benoît de Sainte-Maure (about 1165).[4] It soon wavered between a loose sense (la moitié du temps, 1690) and an exact one (1340–80), especially in mathematics.[4][5] In the 16th century sa moitié came to mean a loved one, probably after Plato's myth of the androgyne, well known in the Renaissance (Héroët, 1542, Ronsard, 1552); it became jocular for a wife in comedy (Molière, 1662).[4][5] Old French de la mité (about 1170) was remade as de moitié (1596), whence être de moitié avec qqn (1671); moitié … moitié is from 1179 and moitié-moitié from 1318.[5][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Meitiet, Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • c. 1165 – Of a countable whole.[4]
  • 1318 – Moitié-moitié.[5]
  • 1542 – Sa moitié, a loved one, Héroët.[4]
  • 1662 – Votre moitié, a wife, Molière.[4]
  • 1671 – Être de moitié avec qqn.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. half, one of two equal parts: cinq est la moitié de dix, couper en deux moitiés.[9][10]
  2. About half, a large part: la moitié du temps, une bonne moitié.[9][2]
  3. À moitié: half, partly: à moitié plein, à moitié prix.[1][9]
  4. Moitié … moitié, moitié-moitié: half and half; fifty-fifty.[5]
  5. (familiar, jocular) One's other half, wife or husband: ma moitié, sa tendre moitié.[1][5]

Word family

  • métayer
  • métairie
  • métayage
  • mitoyen

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 606b
  8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c 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)