muer

Forms

muer^[1] Old French muder (about 1050), then muer (1080).^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French muer, inherited from Latin mūtō (“to move, change, alter”).^[3][1][2] The intervocalic /t/ became /d/ in the earliest form and was then lost.^[2][3] The same Latin verb was later borrowed as muter, its doublet.^[1][2]

The Latin verb was once thought to come from a popular *motivō, from moveō (“to move”), but Rey notes that the frequentative of that verb is motō and that the first sense of the Latin verb is “to change”, as mūtuus, commūtō and permūtō show; he relates it to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange”).^[2] In Late Latin it already meant “to moult”.^[4]

Cognate with Romanian muta, Italian mutare, Old Occitan mudar, Spanish mudar and Portuguese mudar;^[5][6][4] German mausern “to moult” comes from the same Latin verb.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1050 the Vie de saint Alexis has muder “to change”.^[3][2] The Chanson de Roland (1100) has both muer and hosturs muez “moulted goshawks”, and its line Li reis Marsile ad la color muée “King Marsile changed colour”.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages muer was the general word for “to change”, a sense it lost to changer and which went out of use in the classical period; since the 17th century it has been restricted to its modern senses.^[2][5] It kept the old meaning in a few fields, above all the moulting of birds and animals (1080), and in muer en “to turn into” (about 1278) and se muer en, now literary.^[2][3][4] In hunting a stag that sheds its antlers mue sa tête (1394).^[2][3]

Of the human voice, muer has meant since 1575 to break at puberty, and in music (1690) to change key.^[2][3] In the dialects of France the general sense “to change” is still in some use.^[5] The noun mue “moulting” (1170) gave English mew “cage for hawks” (late 14th century).^[5][8]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Muder “to change” in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[3]
• 1100 – Muer and hosturs muez “moulted goshawks” in the Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• c. 1160 – The reflexive se muer appears in the Roman d'Eneas.^[3]
• 1170 – The noun mue is first found, in Chrétien de Troyes.^[5]
• 1269–1278 – Jean de Meun uses muer en “to turn into”.^[3]
• 1327 – immuable is formed after Latin immutabilis.^[2][5]
• 1394 – Muer la teste is said of a stag.^[3]
• 1575 – Ambroise Paré uses it of the voice deepening.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records the musical sense “to change key”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of an animal, to moult, to shed its skin, feathers or coat: le serpent a mué.^[4][3][1]
2. (intransitive) Of a boy's voice, to break at puberty: sa voix commence à muer.^[4][1]
3. (hunting) Muer sa tête: of a stag, to shed its antlers.^[9][7]
4. (literary) Muer en: to change into, to transform;^[4][9] se muer en: to turn into: la colère s’est muée en tristesse.^[4][9]
5. (obsolete) To change.^[4][7]

Word family

• mue
• muance
• remuer
• immuable
• muable

Related words

• muter
• commuer
• permuter
• Latin mūtō

Usage notes

Littré notes that muer takes avoir for the act (l’oiseau a mué) and être for the resulting state (l’oiseau est mué).^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse