regretter

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʁə.ɡʁɛ.te/^[1]
• IPA: /ʁə.ɡʁe.te/^[1]

Forms

regretter^[1] Old French regreter (about 1050), rarely regrater, regretter from about 1460 (Villon).^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][4] The TLFi, following Wartburg, prefers a Germanic verb with the prefix re-, which was probably added by analogy with the many verbs of feeling and thought beginning with “re-” (“repentir”, “remembrer”): Wartburg proposed Old Norse gráta (“to weep, lament”), related to Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐍄𐌰𐌽 (grētan, “to weep”) and English greet in its dialect sense “to weep”.^[2][4][5][6] The form “regreter” instead of “regrater”, rare in Old French, is a difficulty; the alternation of vowels may be explained as in “acheter” beside “achater”.^[2][4][5] Wiktionary derives it from Frankish *grātan (“to weep”).^[1]

Latin etymologies have been proposed, the latest a doubly frequentative Latin verb of complaint proposed by Heinrich Meier, and Pierre Guiraud's *recrepitō (“to cry out one's grief”), from Latin crepitō (“to rattle”), but they raise serious difficulties.^[2][4][6] English regret comes from French.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) the mother laments her dear son, sun ker filz suvent a regreter: to mourn aloud for someone dead.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the verb meant above all to lament a dead person; the modern sense, to feel the loss or absence of someone or something, appears about 1200 and prevailed in the 16th century.^[2][5] Regretter que “to be sorry that” is in Rabelais (1534), and regretter de + infinitive, of what one has or has not done, in the Académie (1718).^[2] La Fontaine (1668) uses it for giving something grudgingly, and the Académie (1694) has regretter son argent.^[2] Vous ne le regretterez pas appears in Proust (1918), and je regrette as a polite formula of apology or refusal in the 19th century (Goncourt, 1864).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Regreter “to mourn”, Vie de saint Alexis.^[2]
• c. 1200 – To miss (something lost).^[2]
• c. 1460 – The spelling regretter, Villon.^[3]
• 1478 – The derivative regrettable.^[5]
• 1534 – Regretter que, Rabelais.^[2]
• 1718 – Regretter de + infinitive, Académie.^[2]
• 1864 – “To apologize”, Goncourt.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To regret, be sorry about: regretter une décision, je regrette de ne pas être venu, vous ne le regretterez pas.^[7][1]
2. To miss: regretter sa jeunesse, regretter un ami disparu.^[7][1]
3. Je regrette: I'm sorry (to apologize or to disagree politely).^[2][7]

Word family

• regret
• regrettable
• regretté

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert