ton
French has two common words spelled ton: the possessive determiner “your”, inherited from Latin, and the noun “tone”, a learned borrowing from Latin tonus.[1][2][3]
ton1 your
Pronunciation
Forms
ton m (feminine ta, plural tes)[3]
Etymology
The possessive is inherited from Old French ton, from the unstressed Vulgar Latin forms of Latin tuus (“your, thy”) (accusative “tuum”):[2][1][3][4] “tus”, “tum”, contracted in proclitic position, which the Toulouse grammarian Virgilius Maro already noted in the 6th century.[2] The stressed forms gave tien.[2][1] Latin “tuus” is from tū (“you (singular)”).[5]
Cognate with Romanian tău, Italian tuo, Old Occitan to, Catalan teu, Spanish tu and Portuguese teu.[6]
Earliest recorded meaning
The Vie de saint Léger and the Passion of Clermont (late 10th century) have the subject form tos and the oblique ton, to, under Occitan influence.[2]
Semantic evolution
Old French distinguished the subject case tis (singular) and ti (plural) from the oblique ton and tes.[2][7] The feminine ta was elided before a vowel (t'anme “thy soul”, Chanson de Roland), as in tante from ta ante;[2][1] from the 13th–14th century ton replaced ta before a vowel (ton amie), a use Littré called a solecism that became standard.[2][7]
Timeline
- Late 10th century – Tos, ton in the Passion of Clermont.[2]
- c. 1050 – Anglo-Norman tun in Saint Alexis.[2]
- c. 1100 – T'anme in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
- 14th century – Ton before feminine nouns beginning with a vowel.[7][2]
Meanings
Determiner
- Your (singular, familiar): ton livre, ta maison, tes amis, ton is used for ta before a vowel: ton amie.[8][2]
Word family
- tien
ton2 tone
Pronunciation
Forms
ton m (plural tons)[3]
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Latin tonus (“sound of an instrument; accent; tension”),[2][9][10][11] from Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “cord; tension; pitch”), a noun of τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”), of the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”), also behind tenir.[9][12] Bloch and Wartburg note that the word was always a learned one, even in Latin.[10] It is a doublet of tonus, a later borrowing.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
It appears at the end of the 11th century (about 1180 according to the TLFi) as a term of music, the pitch of an instrument's sound.[9]
Semantic evolution
In Old French it also meant the air of a song and the sound of voices;[9] from the 12th century it named the pitch of the voice, whence a haut ton “aloud” (early 13th century), and about 1200 a manner of speaking expressing a state of mind.[9][12] With the Renaissance it became a technical term of music: a scale named after its tonic (1549) and the interval of a whole tone (1578);[9] donner le ton (1608), earlier bailler le ton, passed into figurative use (1718).[9] In the 17th century it meant the manner of behaving in society (1678, hence le bon ton, de bon ton 1823) and the style of a written work (Pascal, 1658).[9]
In phonetics it is the pitch accent of a syllable (1550), and langues à ton are tone languages;[9] a 1616 account of China already describes its five tons.[13] In painting it is the strength and brightness of a colour (1669).[9]
Timeline
- Late 11th century – A musical pitch.[9]
- c. 1200 – A manner of speaking.[9]
- 1549 – A musical key, bailler le ton.[9]
- 1578 – The interval of a tone.[9]
- 1616 – The tones of Chinese.[13]
- 1669 – The tone of a colour.[9]
- 1823 – De bon ton.[9]
Meanings
Noun
- The pitch or quality of the voice; a tone of voice: sur un ton sec, hausser le ton.[12][14]
- The style or tone of a text, a conversation or a gathering, donner le ton: to set the tone, de bon ton: in good taste.[14][9]
- (music) A key; the interval of a whole tone.[3][9]
- (phonetics) The pitch of a syllable: langue à tons.[9]
- A shade or tint of colour: ton sur ton.[3][9]
Word family
- tonal
- tonalité
- entonner
- détonner
- intonation
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 451b
- ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 33b
- ^ a b c 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)