Etymologically
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tête

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /tɛt/[1]
  • IPA: /ˈtɛ.tə/[1]
  • IPA (Canada): /tɛːt/[1]
  • IPA (Canada): [taɛt][1]

Forms

tête f (plural têtes)[1] Old French teste; the Académie wrote teste in 1694 and 1718 and tête from 1740.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French teste, inherited from Latin testa (“earthenware vessel; tile; shell”).[2][3][4][1][5] In Late Latin the word took, jokingly, the sense “skull” and then “head”, a shift by likeness of shape also seen in German Kopf, from Latin “cuppa” “cup”, and in French slang words for the head such as “cafetière” and “calebasse”.[3][4] Rey dismisses as fanciful the story that the shift reflects barbarians drinking from skulls, and notes that the word has no clear Indo-European correspondent.[3]

“Tête” gradually replaced the descendants of Latin caput (see chef), first in the north and east of France, Spanish still has only cabeza, from a popular Latin “*capitium”.[3][4][1] The older senses of “testa” survive in Romanian țeastă (“skull”) and Old Occitan testa (“shell”).[4][3] Compare Italian testa.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1050 in the Vie de saint Alexis: his father's servants throw their dishwater sur la teste “on his head”.[2]

Semantic evolution

By about 1100 the head was also the seat of thought and of the senses, and Old French used the word for a pot as well (about 1200).[2][3] Phrases followed: perdre la teste (1160–1174), teste fole (1263–1265), avoir en teste “to remember” (1376), faire à sa teste (1461) and laver la tête “to scold” (late 15th century).[2][3] Avoir la tête près du bonnet “to be quick-tempered” is recorded in 1558, and faire sa tête “to put on airs” in 1833.[7]

Derivatives include têtu and têtière (13th century), entêter (13th century) and têtard (1762); tête-bêche (1838) is an alteration of older béchevet, reinforced with tête when it was no longer understood.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – Teste in the Vie de saint Alexis.[2]
  • c. 1100 – Seat of the senses, in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • 1160–1174 – Perdre la teste in Wace.[2]
  • 1376 – Avoir en teste.[2]
  • 1461 – Faire à sa teste.[2]
  • 1558 – Avoir la teste près du bonnet.[7]
  • 1740 – The Académie adopts the spelling tête.[2]
  • 1838 – Tête-bêche.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The head: lever la tête, avoir mal à la tête.[1][2]
  2. The face, an expression: faire une drôle de tête, faire la tête, to sulk.[3][7]
  3. The mind, reason, memory: perdre la tête, avoir en tête.[3][2]
  4. A head, leader: à la tête de l'entreprise.[1]
  5. (football) A header.[1]
  6. (colloquial) A brain, a bright person.[1]
  7. (perfumery) The top note.[1]

Word family

  • casse-tête
  • tête-à-tête
  • têtière
  • testonner
  • têtard
  • têtu
  • en-tête
  • entêter
  • étêter
  • tête-bêche

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/1, 272a
  6. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF