saut

Forms

saut m (plural sauts)^[1] Old French salz, salt, then saut from about 1155 (Wace).^[2][3][4] Middle French also spelled it sault.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French salt, inherited from Latin saltus (“a leap, a bound”), the action noun of saliō (“to leap”).^[2][4][3][6] Cognate with Romanian salt, Catalan salt, Occitan saut, Italian salto, Spanish salto and Portuguese salto.^[7][5] Through the Latin verb it belongs with sauter, saillir and the learned insulter, exulter and résulter.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) salz is a sudden movement by which one throws oneself into the air, and is also used of an animal's way of moving: a dog comes running les galops et les salz.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

From the idea of a sudden movement Old and Middle French drew adverbial phrases meaning “in haste” or “at once”, such as les salz (1080), de saut (about 1360) and de prime saut, the source of primesautier; all have gone.^[4][6] The word named an acrobat's leap (about 1180), a dance step (15th century), a leap downward or a fall (1170) and, figuratively, a risky decision in faire le saut (1206).^[2][4] Faire le saut later also meant to go bankrupt (1611) and to die or be hanged;^[2][4] faire le grand saut still means “to die”.^[2][4]

En saut “in rut” is recorded in the 13th century, and saut named the covering of a mare by a stallion in 1765.^[2][4] A waterfall driving a mill was a saut a moulin in 1310, and a break of slope in a river's course is a saut from 1605.^[2][4][8] The sense “quick trip” gave ne faire qu'un saut (1547) and modern faire un saut quelque part, and au saut du lit dates from Montaigne (1588).^[2][4]

Abstract uses followed: a jump in a calculation (1119), an interval in music (1703), a break in the continuity of nature (1722).^[2] The athletic events saut en longueur, saut à la perche and triple saut are named in the programme of the 1896 Olympic Games, the saut de l'ange in 1904.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Salz in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• 1119 – Philippe de Thaon uses salt for a day dropped in a calendar computation.^[2]
• c. 1155 – The form saut appears in Wace.^[3][4]
• 1206 – Faire le saut “to take a risky step” in Guiot de Provins.^[2]
• 1310 – Saut a moulin “mill waterfall”.^[2][4]
• 1502 – Saut périlleux “somersault” is recorded.^[4]
• 1588 – Montaigne writes au saut du lict.^[2]
• 1605 – Saut is used for a drop in a river's course.^[2][4]
• 1694 – The Académie records saut de carpe.^[2]
• 1896 – Saut en longueur, saut à la perche and triple saut in the Olympic programme.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A jump or leap: the movement by which a person or animal leaves the ground: le chat fit un saut sur la table.^[7][9][2]
2. (sport) A jumping event or exercise: saut en hauteur, saut en longueur, saut à la perche, triple saut, saut à ski; in gymnastics, a vault.^[2][7][1]
3. Saut périlleux: a somersault.^[9][4]
4. A fall or drop from a height, a leap downward;^[2][4][1] faire le grand saut: to die.^[2][4][1]
5. Faire un saut quelque part: to go somewhere for a moment, to pop in.^[4][8]
6. A sudden change or gap, a passing over intermediate stages: un saut dans l'inconnu.^[2]
7. (geography) A waterfall or rapids, where a river drops sharply.^[2][1][8]
8. Au saut du lit: on getting out of bed.^[4][2]
9. (animal husbandry) The covering of a female by a male.^[4]

Word family

• saut-de-loup
• primesautier
• sursaut

Related words

• sauter
• saillir
• Latin saltus

Usage notes

Old French also had saut “wooded gorge, forest” from Latin saltus in that sense; it survives mainly in place names.^[10][11] In Quebec French faire un saut or faire le saut means “to be startled”.^[4]

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 q r s t u v w x y z 27 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 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 k l m n o p q r s t u Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 125a