Etymologically
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par-dessus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /paʁ.də.sy/[1]

Forms

par-dessus[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of par and dessus.[1][2] In Old French the phrase par desus was in use as a preposition about 1150 and as an adverb about 1176, in Chrétien de Troyes.[3] The preposition continues Latin per (“through, by means of”),[4][1] and the adverb continues dēsursum (“from above”), a compound of dē and sursum (“upwards”) that was current in the popular Latin of the Empire.[3]

Semantic evolution

The preposition took figurative uses alongside the spatial one: par-dessus tout “above all”, par-dessus le marché “into the bargain”, en avoir par-dessus la tête “to be fed up”, and jeter son bonnet par-dessus les moulins “to throw off all propriety”, all illustrated in the TLFi from 19th-century writers.[3] Littré also records a noun par-dessus, an overcoat, and in feudal law the overlord of a fief; the noun is now written pardessus.[2][5]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. Over, above, on top of: porter un manteau par-dessus ses habits.[5][3]
  2. Beyond, in addition to: par-dessus le marché.[5][3]
  3. Going over someone's head, bypassing a level of a hierarchy.[5]
  4. Par-dessus tout: above all, more than anything else.[5][3]

Adverb

  1. Over it, on top: les derniers venus passent par-dessus.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)