remettre

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʁə.mɛtʁ/^[1]

Forms

remettre^[1] Old French remetre.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French remetre, inherited from Latin remittō (“to send back; to slacken; to give up, remit”), formed from re- and mittō (“to send, let go”).^[4][5][2][6] The Latin verb also meant “to soften”, of an illness “to abate”, in law “to remit (a debt, a penalty)” and, in Christian writers, “to forgive (sins)”.^[4][5] Soon felt as a prefixed form of mettre, it was constantly remade on it, Bloch and Wartburg think the senses “to hand over” and “to forgive”, not found before the 15th century, were taken again from Latin, and find it hard to tell what is inherited and what borrowed.^[5][4] The GLLF accordingly derives it from “re-” and “mettre” and/or from the Latin verb.^[3]

Cognate with Italian rimettere, Old Occitan remeter and Spanish remitir.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first sense, “to melt”, continues the Latin “to soften”: Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brendan (early 12th century) has it transitively, and the Oxford Psalter has cum cire remetanz (“like melting wax”).^[9][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to melt”, with “to weaken”, had gone by Middle French, though Oresme still uses the participle remis for “slack, lazy”.^[4][5][8] The repeated sense, “to put back, put again”, took over at once: Wace (about 1145) has Tost le remet en dreite veie (“he soon puts him back on the right road”), the reflexive is found about 1165 and the transitive in Villehardouin (about 1208).^[9][4] Remettre quelqu'un à sa place is in Robert Estienne (1539), with its figurative, snubbing sense from 1823 (Stendhal).^[9] Chrétien de Troyes (1174–1187) and then Ambroise Paré (1564) use it for setting a bone.^[9]

Joinville (1306) has “to put on again (a garment)”, “to put in place of” and se remettre à “to start again”.^[9] From the late 15th century remettre quelqu'un meant to recognize them, usual in the 17th century and now familiar.^[9][4] Ne plus remettre les pieds “never to set foot again” is from 1848, and the slang remettre ça “to start (a fight) again”, or “to order another round”, from 1913.^[9][4]

Timeline

• early 12th century – “To melt”, in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[9]
• c. 1145 – “To put back (on the right road)”, in Wace.^[9]
• 1174–1187 – “To set (a bone)”, in Chrétien de Troyes.^[9]
• 1306 – “To put on again”, se remettre à, in Joinville.^[9]
• c. 1475 – Remettre quelqu'un “to recognize”.^[9]
• 1539 – Remettre en sa place in Robert Estienne.^[9]
• 1848 – Remettre les pieds.^[9]
• 1913 – Remettre ça.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put back, replace: remettre une chose à sa place.^[10][11]
2. To put on again (a garment).^[1][9]
3. To put again, add more: remettre du sel, remettre en état, remettre à neuf, to restore.^[1][3]
4. To hand over, deliver: remettre une lettre à quelqu'un.^[1][5]
5. To postpone: remettre à plus tard.^[1]
6. To remit, forgive (a debt, a sin).^[1][5]
7. (familiar) To recognize: je vous remets, maintenant.^[4][9]
8. (medicine) To set (a bone).^[9]
9. Se remettre: to recover, se remettre à: to start again.^[1]
10. (familiar) Remettre ça: to start again; to order another round.^[9][4]
11. (Belgium) To give change.^[12]

Word family

• remise
• remettage

Related words

• rémission
• mettre
• Latin remittō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 239a
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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
10. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)