rot

Forms

rot m (plural rots)^[1] Anglo-Norman rut, Old French rout;^[2][3][4] rot is found from about 1560.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French rout, inherited from Late Latin ruptus (“belch”), a 4th-century alteration of ructus (“belch”) of the same sense.^[3][2][5][6] The change is put down, perhaps, to the past participle of rumpō (“to break”).^[2][4][7] The Latin noun goes with an old verb rūgō of the same root as rūgiō (“to roar”), and survives in the prefixed ērūctō, the source of éructer.^[3] The vowel /o/ replaced the older /u/ because it was felt to be more expressive.^[3][7]

Cognate with Old Occitan rot and Italian rutto.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as rut in the Anglo-Norman lapidaries of the mid-12th century, and as rout about 1270 in the Lapidaire de Berne, with its modern sense.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Villon rhymes petz et rottes in the Grand Testament, and Ambroise Paré lists rots aigres et puants among the signs of a sick stomach in the 16th century.^[8] In modern French it is a popular or vulgar word, like pet;^[3] Littré already calls it low and gives éructation as the medical term.^[8]

From the early 20th century it is also used of a similar noise from inside a thing,^[3][4] and Flaubert used it in literary prose for the return of unpleasant memories.^[3][4] The childish reduplication rototo (20th century) names a baby's burp after feeding.^[3]

Timeline

• mid-12th century – Anglo-Norman rut appears in the lapidaries.^[2]
• c. 1270 – Rout in the Lapidaire de Berne.^[2]
• 15th century – Villon writes rottes.^[8]
• c. 1560 – Ambroise Paré has the form rot.^[4][3]
• before 1880 – Flaubert uses it figuratively.^[4]
• early 20th century – Used of any similar noise.^[4][3]
• 20th century – The nursery word rototo is formed.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (familiar) A belch, a burp; said especially of a baby after it has fed.^[9][2][1]
2. A similar unpleasant noise from inside something.^[2][4]
3. (literary) An unpleasant memory coming back to the mind.^[4][3]

Word family

• roter
• rototo

Related words

• éructer
• Latin ructus

Usage notes

The final ⟨t⟩ is silent.^[8] A second rot, with the ⟨t⟩ pronounced, is a fungal disease of the vine, borrowed in 1875 from the English word rot.^[5][3][9] A third rot (1679) is a variant of ros, the reed of a weaver's loom.^[5][8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c 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, 539b
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert