Etymologically
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plutôt

Etymology and origin of the French word plutôt

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 1274, Adenet le Roi, Berte (plus tost… que)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ply.to/[1]

Forms

plutôt[1] Written plus tost in Old and Middle French; the joined spelling plustost appears in 1549.[2][3] The Académie wrote plutost in 1694, plus tost in 1718 and plustôt in 1740, and has had plutôt since 1835.[3]

Etymology

It is a compound of plus and tôt, first the phrase “plus tost”, written as one word from 1549 where it had taken on a sense other than time.[3][2][4][5] In this phrase “tôt” still had its older sense “quickly”.[2] Old French tost continues Vulgar Latin *tostum, the neuter of Latin tostus (“roasted, burnt”), the past participle of torreō (“to parch, roast”), used as an adverb; it must first have meant “hotly”, then “promptly”.[6] The spelling “plus tôt” was kept for the sense of time.[3][2]

Italian piuttosto is formed in the same way.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The phrase plus tost… que is first found about 1274 in Adenet le Roi's Berte, meaning “sooner than, more willingly than”: eles me mengeront plus tost crue que cuite (“they will eat me raw rather than cooked”).[3][7]

Semantic evolution

From the time sense “more quickly than”, the conjunction plus tost… que slid to the preference “more willingly than”.[2] Ou plustost and mais plustost, introducing a correction, are found in the 1540s, at the time the word began to be used alone as an adverb of preference (before 1563, Bernard Palissy).[2][3][8]

Without an explicit comparison it came to mean “fairly, quite” (1888, Maupassant: sa conversation était plutôt reposante), and familiarly “very”, especially as the exclamation plutôt ! (1908).[2][3] The old time sense survives as an archaism in pas plutôt… que “no sooner… than”.[2][9]

Timeline

  • c. 1274 – Plus tost… que “more willingly than”, in Adenet le Roi.[3]
  • 1541 – Mais plustost in Calvin's Institution.[8][2]
  • 1549 – The joined form and ou plustost, in Noël du Fail.[3][2]
  • 1563 – The adverb alone, “by preference”, in Palissy.[3]
  • 1835 – The Académie settles on the spelling plutôt.[3]
  • 1888 – “Fairly, rather”, in Maupassant.[3]
  • 1908 – Familiar “very”, and plutôt !.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. rather, by preference: plutôt mourir, plutôt que de se plaindre.[9][10]
  2. Ou plutôt: or more exactly (introducing a correction).[10][11]
  3. Fairly, quite, somewhat: c'est plutôt gentil.[10][12]
  4. (familiar) Very; as an exclamation, “and how!”.[12][2]
  5. (archaic) Sooner, now written plus tôt; still in ne… pas plutôt… que “no sooner… than”.[9][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 120a
  6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  12. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
Cite this entry

“Plutôt.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/plut%C3%B4t. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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