tante
Pronunciation
Forms
tante f (plural tantes)[1] Old French ante (about 1145, Wace), object case antain, tante from about 1200, ante survived into the 16th century in belante (1512).[2][3][4][5]
Etymology
It is an alteration of ante, inherited from Latin amita (“father's sister”).[2][3][4][6] The origin of the ⟨t⟩ is disputed.[5][1] The TLFi, Bloch–Wartburg and Rey see a nursery form, with the consonant repeated as in “tata”;[2][4][3] the Grand Robert, the GLLF and the Petit Robert take it from “ta ante” “your aunt”, with the possessive run together with the noun.[7][8][9] Littré, who rejected Diez's “euphonic” “t”, also chose “ta ante”, comparing Walloon kin terms built with the possessive (“matante”, “mononk”);[5] Wiktionary objects that such a fusion would be expected with the first person rather than the second.[1] Latin “amita” is related to “amma” “mummy”.[9][3]
The old “ante” is the source of English aunt.[3] Latin “amita” also gave Old Occitan amda and Romanian mătușă.[4][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
The Mort Garin (about 1200) has tante “sister of one's father or mother”;[2] Wace (about 1145) still has ante.[2]
Semantic evolution
Furetière (1690) adds the wife of an uncle, and the Académie (1694) has tante à la mode de Bretagne “first cousin of one's father or mother”, later “distant relative” (1875).[2] Grand-tante dates from 1538.[3] In African French tante is above all the father's sister.[3]
In 19th-century slang ma tante was the pawnshop (1823), an ironic allusion to borrowers who pretended to have gone to their family;[2][10][9][3] oncle had the same sense in Belgium in 1642.[9][3] In 1834 tante was an insulting word for a passive homosexual, explained by a character in Balzac's Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes;[2][3] it gave tantouse (1900).[2] The nursery words tata (1782) and tantine (1898) also go back to it.[3][2]
Timeline
- c. 1145 – Ante in Wace.[2]
- c. 1200 – Tante in the Mort Garin.[2]
- 1512 – Belante.[3]
- 1538 – Grand-tante.[3]
- 1690 – “Wife of an uncle”, in Furetière.[2]
- 1694 – Tante à la mode de Bretagne.[2]
- 1823 – Ma tante “the pawnshop”.[10]
- 1834 – The slang sense “homosexual”.[2]
Meanings
Noun
- An aunt: the sister of one's father or mother; the wife of one's uncle.[9][11]
- Tante à la mode de Bretagne: a first cousin of one's father or mother; a distant relative.[9][2]
- (familiar, dated) Ma tante: the pawnshop.[9][11]
- (vulgar, offensive) An effeminate homosexual man.[9][1]
Word family
- tantouze
- grand-tante
- tantine
- tata
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 453a
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
- ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)