pondre

Forms

pondre^[1] Old French pundre.^[2][3] Past participle pondu;^[2] Middle French also had ponnu (1547).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pundre, inherited from Latin pōnō (“to put, set down”), specifically, with eggs as object, “to lay” (Ovid), the only sense kept in Gallo-Romance.^[2][3][4][5] In French the general sense passed to the descendants of pausō, as poser.^[6][3] The origin of the Latin verb is unknown, though a preverb po- has been identified in it;^[3] Littré explains it as standing for an older form with /s/ before /n/, as the participle positus shows, and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *pozinō.^[7][1]

Catalan pondre and Old Occitan ponre likewise mean “to lay eggs”, while elsewhere the verb kept the general sense “to put”: Italian porre, Spanish poner, Portuguese pôr, Romanian pune.^[8][4][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as pundre in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134), of a female bird laying eggs, both with an object and without one.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Used by metaphor, it came to mean “to produce” in the early 13th century (Renclus de Molliens, covoitise tous maus pont, greed lays all evils).^[2][3] The Académie recorded the ironic voilà qui est bien pondu for something badly made in 1798, and Balzac used it in 1837 for turning out a piece of writing.^[2][3] In popular speech it has been said of a woman giving birth since about 1700.^[2][3]

The action noun ponte (1570) is the feminine past participle used as a noun.^[3][4] Littré records the mocking refusal je t'en ponds.^[7]

Timeline

• 1121–1134 – Pundre appears in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire.^[2]
• Early 13th century – Renclus de Molliens uses it for “produce”.^[2]
• 1547 – Haudent has oeufz fraictz ponnuz.^[2]
• 1570 – ponte is recorded.^[4][3]
• Before 1701 – Boursault uses it of a woman giving birth.^[2]
• 1798 – The Académie records voilà qui est bien pondu.^[2]
• 1837 – Balzac uses it for producing a piece of writing.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lay (eggs), of a female bird, reptile, fish or insect; also without an object: la poule a pondu.^[6][9][7]
2. (familiar, pejorative) To give birth to (a child).^[6][10]
3. (figurative, familiar) To turn out, to churn out (a piece of writing or work): pondre un rapport.^[6][10]

Word family

• ponte
• pondoir

Related words

• pondaison
• pondeur
• pondeuse
• poser
• Latin pōnō

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 m n o 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 i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d 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. 9, 161a
6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)