restaurer
Pronunciation
Forms
restaurer[1] Old French restaurar (late 10th century), then restorer (about 1138).[2][3]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Latin restaurō (“to rebuild, repair; to resume, renew”),[3][2][4][5] first as “restaurar” and then in the more French form restorer;[4][2] the ⟨au⟩ was later restored after the Latin spelling.[1] Rey explains the Latin verb as formed on īnstaurō by a change of prefix to re-, on the model of īnstituō beside restituō.[2] Littré instead analysed it as re- and a simple verb meaning “to strengthen”.[6]
The Old French form restorer passed into Middle Dutch as restoren and into English as restore.[2] Cognate with Italian restaurare, Italian ristorare (“to refresh”), Occitan restaurar and Spanish restaurar.[6][7]
Earliest recorded meaning
The Vie de saint Léger (late 10th century) has La labia li ad restaurat “he restored his lips to him”, meaning “to heal, make whole again”.[3][2]
Semantic evolution
About 1140 Gaimar uses restorer for rebuilding a town, and in 1155 Wace for reviving a tribute;[3] the restoring of works of art is recorded by Richelet in 1680.[3][2] From 1216 the verb meant “to give strength (by food)”, and the reflexive se restaurer “to refresh oneself by eating” is recorded in 1819.[3][8] In Old French it also meant “to replace”, “to compensate” and “to save (a soul)”, senses now lost.[2] Of a dynasty it meant “to put back on the throne” (Courier, before 1825), as with the Stuarts.[3]
The present participle restaurant named a restoring food (1521) and then a rich meat broth (1666);[2] from about 1765–1771 it named the establishments that served such broths, from which the modern restaurant comes.[2][4] Bloch and Wartburg tell that the restaurateur Boulanger took for his sign a Latin text from the Gospel with ego vos restaurabo “I will restore you”.[4] In computing, restaurer (a file, a system) follows English restore.[8]
Timeline
- Late 10th century – Restaurar “to heal” in the Vie de saint Léger.[3]
- c. 1140 – Restorer “to rebuild” in Gaimar.[3]
- 1216 – “To strengthen with food” in Robert de Clari.[3]
- 1521 – Restaurant “restoring food”.[2]
- 1680 – Restoring works of art, in Richelet.[3]
- 1771 – Restaurant “eating house”.[2]
- 1819 – Se restaurer “to have something to eat”.[3]
Meanings
Verb
- To restore (a building or a work of art) to its original state.[9][8]
- (literary) To re-establish (a custom, a regime, peace); to put (a king) back on the throne.[8][10]
- (computing) To restore (a file or system).[8][1]
- (literary) To feed (someone).[9][8]
- (reflexive) Se restaurer: to take some food, to refresh oneself.[8][1]
Word family
- restaurant
- restaurateur
- restauratif
- restauration
Related words
- instaurer
- Latin restaurare
- English restore
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
- ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 321a
- ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
- ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)