tacher

Forms

tacher^[1] Old French tajer, tachier and techier.^[2][3]

Etymology

Most dictionaries derive it from French tache (“stain, spot”).^[4][5][6][2] The noun is of uncertain origin: Wartburg traced it to Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (taikns, “sign”) through Late Latin *tacca, and the TLFi finds this hard to accept on grounds of sound and sense.^[2][3]

Others make the verb the base of the family and the noun its deverbal: Joppich-Hagemann, cited by the TLFi, derives tachier from Vulgar Latin *tagicare, from Latin tangō (“to touch”), which under the influence of tingō (“to dye”) had come to mean "to touch with something wet, smear, colour", and techier from *tigicare, built on the verb for "to dye".^[2] Guiraud, cited by the DHLF and the Grand Robert, proposes Vulgar Latin *tacticare, built on tactum, the supine of the verb for "to touch", a stain being the mark of a finger.^[3][7]

Littré compares Walloon techî, Old Occitan tacar, Spanish tachar and Italian tacciare.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as tajer “to speckle” in Rashi's glosses at the end of the 11th century.^[2][3] Chrétien de Troyes's Chevalier de la Charrette (1176–1181) has the modern sense: De ses dras ne se gardoit mie Que il fussent tachié de sanc “he took no care that his clothes should not be stained with blood”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The past participle tachié, “bearing natural spots”, is found about 1265 in Brunetto Latini.^[2] In a moral sense, “to sully, tarnish”, tachier appears in the second half of the 13th century, already techier about 1215; this use survived in classical French, as in Corneille and Molière, but gave way to entacher.^[2][3][5] The infinitive itself is recorded only from 1530, in Palsgrave.^[5][6]

The sense “to mark with a coloured spot” dates from 1841, and the reflexive se tacher “to stain oneself, one's clothes” from 1819.^[2][6]

Timeline

• late 11th century – Rashi's glosses have tajer “to speckle”.^[2]
• 1176–1181 – Chrétien de Troyes uses tachié de sanc “stained with blood”.^[2]
• c. 1215 – Raoul de Houdenc uses techier for moral sullying.^[2]
• c. 1265 – Brunetto Latini uses tachié of a naturally spotted animal.^[2]
• 1530 – Palsgrave records the infinitive tacher.^[5]
• 1819 – Boiste records se tacher.^[2]
• 1841 – Bertrand uses it for “to mark with a coloured spot”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To stain or soil with a spot or spots: tacher sa chemise de café.^[6][2]
2. (intransitive, of a substance) To leave marks that are hard to remove;^[6][2] du gros qui tache is cheap red wine.^[6][2]
3. (dated) To sully morally, to tarnish someone's honour or name.^[6][5]
4. To mark with a coloured patch.^[6][2]
5. Se tacher: to get stains on oneself or one's clothes.^[6][2]

Related words

• tache
• tacheter
• entacher
• détacher²

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 n o p q r s t 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 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. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette