résoudre

Forms

résoudre^[1] Old French past participle resous (late 12th or early 13th century); Middle French résouldre.^[2][3][1] The past participles are résolu and the rarer résous, feminine résoute.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resolvō (“to untie, loosen; to dissolve; to pay; to explain”), adapted after the Old French verb soudre (“to pay”), itself from Latin solvō (“to loosen, release; to pay; to solve”).^[5][6][2][7] The Latin verb is formed from intensive re- and the simple verb.^[5][2] Before the infinitive, Old French only had the participle resout, from resolūtus, mostly as a technical term for “broken up, dissolved”.^[6] Wiktionary instead treats the verb as inherited, through Old French resoldre.^[1] The verb displaced the more direct borrowing résolver (1370).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the early 13th century in Reclus de Molliens, as estre resous “to be paid back, compensated” (of a loss suffered by someone), the sense of Old French soudre.^[3][5] This sense, still seen in se résoudre de “to pay off” in 1498, died out in the 16th century.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The active verb appears about 1300 with the physical sense “to break up (a body) into its elements, make disappear”, as in Oresme's corps mixtes … resoluz en poudre (1377); by extension it meant turning something into a simpler state (about 1462).^[5][3] The pronominal se résoudre meant “to separate, divide” (about 1360) and later “to dissolve” (1690).^[5] Technical uses followed: in medicine, making a tumour disappear (about 1560), in law, annulling a contract (1668, La Fontaine), and in music, resolving a dissonance (1752, Rousseau).^[5][2]

In the 15th century the verb took the sense “to find the solution to”, first in logic and then in mathematics (résoudre une équation, 1765).^[5] The sense “to decide” developed in Middle French, with resoldre de (1356); résoudre quelqu'un à dates from the late 16th century and se résoudre à from the early 17th.^[5][6] The participle résolu took the sense “firm in one's purpose” in 1478–1480, the only one of its senses to survive.^[5] The main senses are shared out between two nouns: résolution for dissolving and deciding, solution for solving.^[5]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Estre resous “to be repaid”, in Reclus de Molliens.^[3]
• 1356 – Resoldre de “to decide to”.^[5]
• 1377 – Oresme uses it for breaking bodies up into their elements.^[3]
• 1478–1480 – Résolu “determined”.^[5]
• c. 1560 – A medical sense, in Ambroise Paré.^[2]
• 1668 – “To annul (a contract)”, in La Fontaine.^[3][2]
• 1752 – The musical sense, in Rousseau.^[2]
• 1765 – Résoudre une équation.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary or technical) To dissolve, break up or turn into something else: la glace se résout en eau.^[4][8]
2. (medicine) To make a swelling or tumour disappear gradually.^[4][8]
3. (law) To annul a contract or sale.^[4][8]
4. To solve, find the answer to: résoudre un problème, résoudre une équation.^[1][5]
5. To decide, determine: résoudre de partir, résoudre quelqu'un à, to persuade someone to.^[5][8]
6. Se résoudre à: to make up one's mind to, bring oneself to.^[1][5]

Word family

• irrésolu
• résolu

Related words

• résolution
• solution
• Latin resolvō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 302b
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette