sortir

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɔʁ.tiʁ/^[1]

Forms

sortir^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French sortir, probably inherited from Latin sortior (“to cast lots; to obtain by lot; to choose”), from sors (“lot”).^[2][3][4][5] The sense “to go from inside to outside” may have grown out of the past participle “sortītus” “designated by lot”, hence “escaping” and “appearing outside”.^[2][3]

Ménage and Diez, followed by Littré, derived the verb of movement instead from a Vulgar Latin “*surctus” or “*surrectīre”, from “surrectus”, participle of surgō (“to rise, spring up”), which suits Spanish surtir (“to spurt”) but, as Rey and Bloch and Wartburg object, does not explain the French /o/, Wiktionary combines the two, deriving the word from “sortīrī” with influence of “surrectus”.^[6][2][3][1] The Grand Robert, like Littré, separates a legal “sortir” “to obtain” from the verb of movement.^[7][6]

As a verb of movement “sortir” was rare before the 16th century; it then replaced Old French issir (see issue).^[3][7][2] Compare Italian sortire.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1145 in Wace with the Latin sense “to decide”, and about 1160 for “to decide by lot”; in the 12th century it also meant “to escape” (de la mort puisse sortir).^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Old and Middle French kept the senses of the Latin verb: “to cast lots, predict” (1155), “to choose” (about 1170) and “to allot” (about 1330).^[2][4] The legal sense “to obtain”, as in sortir son plein effet, survives from 1395.^[8][7]

The sense of movement appears about 1150 in sortir de la mort “to escape death” and about 1175 for leaving a place; the derivative ressortir already meant “to rebound” in the Chanson de Roland.^[4][9] Sortir de prison is found in 1553 and sortir les pieds devant “to be carried out dead” in 1623.^[4] Transitive uses followed: “to put something out” (1611), “to take (a horse) out” (1596) and a person for a walk (1788), and familiarly “to come out with (a remark)” (1903) and “to bring out (a product)” (1938).^[4] The infinitive used as a noun gave au sortir de (1559).^[7][8]

Timeline

• c. 1145 – “To decide”, in Wace.^[4]
• 1155 – “To cast lots, predict”, in Wace's Brut.^[4]
• c. 1150 – Sortir de la mort “to escape death”.^[4]
• c. 1175 – “To go out of a place”, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[4]
• 1400 – The noun sortie.^[3]
• 1559 – Au sortir de.^[7]
• 1611 – Transitive “to put out”, in Cotgrave.^[4]
• 1903 – “To come out with (a remark)”, in Colette.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go out, come out, leave: sortir de la maison, sortir de prison.^[4][7]
2. To go out (for amusement): sortir le soir, sortir avec quelqu'un, to go out with, date someone.^[6][1]
3. To get out of a state or situation: sortir d'une maladie, s'en sortir, to pull through.^[4][1]
4. To come out, appear: Le livre sortira en mai.^[1][4]
5. To take out, bring out: sortir la voiture du garage; to take (a person, a dog) out.^[4][1]
6. (familiar) To come out with, say: Qu'est-ce qu'il nous a sorti ?^[4]
7. To produce, put on the market.^[4]
8. (law) Sortir son effet: to take effect.^[8][1]

Noun

1. Au sortir de: on coming out of, at the end of: au sortir de l'hiver.^[8]

Word family

• ressortir
• sortie
• sortable

Related words

• partir
• issue
• sort
• Latin sortior

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 126a
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse