Etymologically
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tas

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Pronunciation

Forms

tas m (invariable)[1]

Etymology

Its origin is not certain.[2][3] It is usually taken as borrowed from Frankish *tas (“heap”), inferred from Middle Dutch tas (“heap; crowd”) and Middle Low German tas (“place where grain is stacked”), which also gave Old Occitan tas.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Wiktionary compares Old English tass and traces the Frankish word to Proto-Germanic *tassaz (“heap, mow”).[1]

Heinrich Meier rejects a Germanic source, because the Gallo-Romance meanings point to “arranging, stacking, aligning” rather than simply “heap”, and suggests a word of the family of Latin stō (“to stand”).[2] Pierre Guiraud takes it as a noun from tasser, from Latin taxō (“to touch repeatedly”), pointing to the early phrase “ferir a tas” “to strike hard”.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Roman de Brut (about 1155) uses it for a heap of corpses, Des ocis asemblout grant tas, and for a crowd of people.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Ferir a tas “to strike hard” was used from about 1160 to the 14th century, and a tas “in great quantity” (1172–1174) died out in classical French.[2][3] Un tas de “a lot of”, familiar or pejorative, dates from the 15th century, tas de… as an insult from 1818, and des tas de “lots of” from about 1880.[3]

By about 1260 a tas was a small steel anvil, used by coin makers (1349) and button makers (1723).[2][3] Masons cut stone sur le tas (1565), on the building site itself, and tas de charge (1567) is a course of stones supporting an arch; from this come slang sur le tas “at work” (1872), grève sur le tas “sit-down strike” (1949) and formation sur le tas “on-the-job training”.[2][3][8] In the French of Africa and Madagascar a tas is an agreed quantity of fruit or vegetables.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1155 – A heap; a crowd, Wace.[2]
  • c. 1160 – Ferir a tas, Roman d'Eneas.[2]
  • c. 1260 – A small anvil.[2]
  • 15th century – Un tas de “a lot of”.[3]
  • 1565 – Tailler sur le tas.[2]
  • 1872 – Slang sur le tas.[2]
  • 1949 – Grève sur le tas.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A heap, a pile: un tas de sable, mettre en tas.[9][1]
  2. (familiar) A lot: un tas de choses, des tas de gens, tas de…, bunch of… (as an insult).[9][3]
  3. Sur le tas: on the job, at the place of work: formation sur le tas, grève sur le tas.[3][8][1]
  4. (familiar) A heavy, clumsy person: un gros tas.[9]
  5. (technical) A small anvil.[2][3]

Word family

  • tasser
  • entasser
  • tasserie

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 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 k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 316b
  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 c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert