tolérer

Forms

tolérer^[1] Middle French tolerer, also tollerer.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tolerō (“to bear, endure”).^[2][4][5][6] The Latin verb meant to carry or bear a physical or moral burden, and Rey derives it from the same root as tollō, which at first also meant “to carry, bear”, in a more concrete sense (whence tollé).^[4][3] Bloch and Wartburg date the borrowing to 1393, together with tolérable (1355) and tolérance (14th century), taken from tolerābilis and tolerantia.^[7]

Littré compares Occitan tollerar and Spanish tolerar.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1393 in the Ménagier de Paris, meaning to bear more or less patiently something unpleasant: Elle admonestoit son mary à tolerer et dissimuler son injure “She urged her husband to bear and conceal the wrong done to him”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, to bear a pain while suffering it, went out of use as the idea of patience replaced that of suffering.^[4] From 1469, in a letter of Louis XI, the verb meant to put up with abuses or with what one does not approve in others, and after 1695 (Bossuet) also to put up with a person in spite of his faults.^[2][4] In the 16th century it also meant to withstand a physical ordeal (1520), a sense extended much later to an organism that bears something without harm (1857).^[2][4]

In the classical period, following the religious sense that tolérance took in the 16th century, tolérer acquired the more active sense of showing openness in matters of religion (about 1640).^[4] Its present participle tolérant became an adjective, at first “bearing ordeals bravely” (late 15th century), then, through the same religious stage, “tolerant” (1691, Bossuet) and “understanding” (1782).^[4][2] Bloch and Wartburg date tolérant to 1544.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1393 – First record, in the Ménagier de Paris, “to bear patiently”.^[2][3]
• 1469 – A letter of Louis XI uses it for tolerating abuses.^[2][4]
• 1520 – Jehan Falcon's Guidon has tollerer “to withstand” a scarification.^[2]
• c. 1640 – It is used of openness in religious matters.^[4]
• 1689 – Bossuet uses it, reflexively, for indulgence towards what one disapproves of.^[2]
• 1691 – Bossuet uses tolérant of religious toleration.^[2]
• 1695 – Bossuet has tolérer with a person as object.^[2][4]
• 1782 – Mme de Genlis uses tolérant “understanding”.^[2]
• 1857 – Michelet writes of a tree that tolerates salt water.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To allow something to happen or continue that one has the right or the power to prevent, to tolerate, permit.^[8][9][10]
2. To regard with indulgence something one disapproves of: tolérer des écarts de conduite.^[8][2][3]
3. To bear patiently something unpleasant or unjust, to endure: tolérer le froid.^[8][2]
4. To put up with a person: il tolère à peine son voisin.^[2][3]
5. (medicine) Of an organism, to bear a drug, a treatment or a condition without ill effects.^[2][3][11]
6. (dated) To practise religious toleration.^[3]
7. Se tolérer: to tolerate one another.^[3]

Word family

• tolérant

Related words

• tolérance
• tolérable
• intolérable
• intolérant
• intolérance
• tollé
• Latin tolerō

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 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 17a
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse