retrait

Forms

retrait m (plural retraits)^[1]

Etymology

It is from French retraire (“to draw back, withdraw”): the noun is that old verb's past participle used as a noun.^[2][3][4][5] The verb (1080) is the oral outcome of Latin retrahō (“to draw back, bring back, reduce”), from re- “back” and trahō (“to draw, drag”).^[3][6][7] As traire gave way to tirer, the old verb gave way to retirer and survives only as a literary and legal archaism, while its two participles, the masculine and the feminine retraite, lived on and took different senses.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rey dates the noun to about 1150; the TLFi's first record is Thomas's Tristan (about 1180), where it means the ebb of the sea.^[3][2] Early phrases are sans nul retrait “lost without return” and avoir retrait vers quelqu'un “to approach someone to speak to him”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the late 12th century the noun meant the act of withdrawing from a place.^[2][3] By metonymy it named the place one withdraws to: a refuge (about 1175), a lodging (about 1380), a privy (1387), and a room where one wants to be alone (1580), with chambre de retrait (about 1360).^[3][8] These senses disappeared in the 18th and 19th centuries.^[3] In law it named from 1549 the act by which a third party takes the place of the buyer of a property by repaying him the price.^[2][3]

The phrase en retrait (1611) first meant “alone”, then “set back from the line” (1893) and figuratively “less advanced” (before 1906).^[3] In the 19th century the noun came to mean the contraction of a body (1824) and, figuratively, a withdrawal into oneself (1913); retrait d'emploi (1870) was a professional sanction, and the word came to serve as the action noun of retirer, as in retrait d'argent (1836).^[3][2] English retreat comes from Old French retret, retrait (about 1300).^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1180 – In Thomas's Tristan it means the ebb of the sea.^[2]
• Late 12th century – It means the act of withdrawing (Raoul de Cambrai).^[2]
• c. 1300 – English borrows the word as retrete.^[9]
• c. 1375 – Chambre de retrait is a room to withdraw to.^[2]
• 1387 – It names a privy.^[3]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne records the legal sense.^[2][7]
• 1611 – En retrait is first recorded.^[3]
• 1824 – The sense “contraction” appears in chemistry.^[2][8]
• 1836 – Retrait d'argent is recorded.^[2]
• 1893 – En retrait means set back from the line.^[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The going back of water: le retrait de la mer.^[7]
2. The act of leaving a place or giving up a position: the withdrawal of troops, of a competitor.^[7][10]
3. (obsolete) A place of retreat, a refuge.^[7]
4. En retrait: set back from the line; figuratively, keeping in the background, or offering less than before.^[7]
5. Shrinkage, the contraction of a material such as wood or concrete.^[7][10]
6. (figurative) A withdrawal into oneself.^[7]
7. The act of taking back or withdrawing something: a withdrawal of money, the withdrawal of a bill, of a driving licence.^[7][10]
8. (law) The substitution of a third party for the buyer of a property.^[7][2]

Adjective

1. (agriculture) Of grain: ripened shrivelled and not well filled.^[7][2]
2. (heraldry) Shortened, of a charge.^[7]

Related words

• retraite
• retirer
• Latin retrahō
• English retreat

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 341b
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)