Etymologically
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nettoyer

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /nɛ.twa.je/[1]
  • IPA: /ne.twa.je/[1]

Forms

nettoyer[1] Old French netoiier, nattïer, naitoier;[2][3] nettoyer from 1350.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a remaking, after the adjective net, of Old French noiier (“to clean; to free”) (first half of the 12th century), which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *nitidiō, a verb formed on nitidus (“shining, polished; clean”).[2][4][3][1][5] Catalan nedejar comes from the same Latin type, and the old verb survives in a Vosges dialect word for scraping vegetables.[2][4] The senses of the French verb developed from those of the adjective.[2]

Littré instead saw the adjective with the suffix ⟨-oyer⟩, like Italian ⟨-eggiare⟩.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Sermons of Saint Bernard (late 12th century) have nattïer son cuer en la confessïon, to cleanse one's heart in confession; a 13th-century manuscript of Chrétien's Erec has wounds netoiees et lavees.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

About 1210 Robert de Clari uses it for freeing someone from an illness, and about 1260 a chronicler for clearing a city of the bodies of the Saracens; the Établissements de Saint Louis (1272) speak of clearing a jurisdiction of bad men and women.[2][6] In the army nettoyer les tranchées is in Pomey (1671).[2]

Robert Estienne (1538) has the sense “to clean out (someone's money)”, and the Académie (1694) “to strip a house bare”.[2][3] La Fontaine (1678) uses it for squandering a heap of pistoles, and in popular speech it has meant “to kill, liquidate” since 1844.[2][3] Mountaineers speak of cleaning a route of vegetation (1933) or of pitons (1964).[7]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – “To cleanse (the heart)”, in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.[2]
  • c. 1210 – “To free from an illness”, in Robert de Clari.[2]
  • 1262 – Naitoier le puis, to clean a well.[2]
  • 1350 – The spelling nettoyer.[3]
  • 1538 – “To clean out (of money)”, in Robert Estienne.[2]
  • 1671 – Nettoyer les tranchées.[2]
  • 1844 – “To kill”, in popular speech.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To clean: nettoyer la maison, nettoyer à sec.[8][9]
  2. To clear (a place) of unwanted people or things, (military) to mop up.[2][9]
  3. (familiar) To clean out (someone of their money): se faire nettoyer au jeu; to strip (a place) bare.[9][2]
  4. (slang) To kill, bump off.[2][3]
  5. Nettoyer les écuries d'Augias: to clean the Augean stables.[1][8]

Word family

  • nettoyage
  • nettoyeur
  • nettoiement

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 144a
  6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)