tette

Forms

tette f (plural tettes)^[1] Old French tete.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French tete, probably from Proto-West Germanic *titta (“woman's breast”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Rey suggests that the stem *tit- may have meant “point”;^[3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *titt- (“teat, nipple, breast”).^[1] Bloch and Wartburg and the DHLF think the word entered the Latin of the Late Empire through the many wet nurses brought from the Germanic-speaking countries, as Late Latin dida (“breast, nurse”) suggests; the Latin word had been puppa.^[4][3][6] The Spanish etymologist Corominas saw instead expressive nursery words imitating the sound of sucking, found independently in Romance, Celtic, Greek and Germanic.^[3]

Germanic cognates are German Zitze (“teat”), Dutch tet and English teat;^[3][2] Romance has Italian tetta, Spanish teta and Old Occitan teta.^[3][7] Littré compared Ancient Greek τίτθη (títthē, “nurse”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1200, as tete, in the First Continuation of Perceval, meaning a woman's breast.^[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

For a long time, until the 17th century, the word was used for a woman's breast; from 1660 it meant in particular the nipple.^[3][2] Of animals it is found about 1360 in Froissart, of a sow with long teats,^[6][8] and Gaston Phébus spoke of the tetes of hounds about 1387–89.^[2] Cotgrave glossed it in 1611 as teat, pap, dug or breast.^[9] By 1694 the Académie said it was used almost only of animals,^[10] and the Académie's current edition marks it as dated.^[11]

The word gave several common derivatives: tétine (about 1165), téter (1190), tétasse and téton (both late 15th century).^[3][4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Tete “breast” appears in the First Continuation of Perceval.^[2]
• c. 1360 – Froissart uses it of a sow's teats.^[6][8]
• 1611 – Cotgrave glosses it as “teat, pap, dug, breast”.^[9]
• 1660 – Oudin records the sense “nipple”.^[2][3]
• 1694 – The Académie says it is used almost only of animals.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology, dated) The teat of a female animal's udder.^{[12][13][14][11]}

Word family

• téter
• tétine
• tétin
• téton
• tétasse

Related words

• mamelle
• English teat

Usage notes

Tette is pronounced like têt and tête.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
10. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
11. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
12. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
14. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)