Etymologically
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tout

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /tu/[1]
  • IPA: /tu.t‿/[1]
  • IPA (Quebec): /tʊt/[1]

Forms

tout m (feminine toute, masculine plural tous, feminine plural toutes)[1] Old French subject plural tuit, object toz (late 9th century); singular tot, tut.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French tot, inherited from Vulgar Latin tōttus, with an expressive doubled ⟨tt⟩, recorded in Late Latin, an alteration of Classical Latin tōtus (“whole, entire”).[2][5][6][1] In popular Latin “tōtus” took over the senses of omnis (“all, every”), which survives only in Italian ogni.[5][2] “Tōtus” itself has no clear etymology, Wackernagel took it for a dialect form related to words for the city or nation, such as Oscan touto (“community”).[2][7]

Spanish todo and Portuguese todo continue “tōtus”, while Italian tutto and Old Occitan tot come from forms with “-tt-”.[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural subject tuit in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (881): Tuit oram que por nos degnet preier “let us all pray that she may deign to pray for us”.[4]

Semantic evolution

Most uses of tout are found before the end of the 13th century, apart from its use before a word of time for regular repetition (tous les jours, 14th century) and many phrases of the 16th and 17th centuries.[2] Tout as a pronoun for people (15th century) has been replaced by tout le monde.[2] Le tout means “all the things in question” (late 15th century) and “the main thing” (about 1550); Ronsard called the universe le grand Tout (1552).[2] Le tout pour le tout (1690) comes from gambling.[2] Tout à fait dates from 1200 and since the 1970s–80s has been fashionable as a strong “yes”.[2]

Timeline

  • 881 – Tuit in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.[4]
  • 937–952 – Neuter tot “everything” in the Jonas fragment.[4]
  • 1080 – Adjectival tuz, tut in the Chanson de Roland.[3]
  • 1200 – Tout à fait.[2]
  • 14th century – Tous les… of regular repetition.[2]
  • 1552 – Le grand Tout in Ronsard.[2]
  • 1690 – Le tout pour le tout.[2]

Meanings

Determiner

  1. all, the whole of: tout le jour, toute la ville.[1][3]
  2. (plural) All, every: tous les hommes; with words of time, every: tous les jours.[1][2]
  3. Any, every: toute personne.[3]

Pronoun

  1. Everything: tout est prêt, tous, toutes: everyone, all of them.[4][1]

Adverb

  1. Quite, very, completely: tout seul, tout près.[1]
  2. Tout… que: however, no matter how: tout riche qu'il est.[1]
  3. Tout à fait: entirely, (familiar) yes, absolutely.[2]

Noun

  1. The whole, le tout: the main thing; plural touts.[2][1]

Word family

  • atout
  • partout
  • surtout

Usage notes

The plural pronoun tous is pronounced with its s (ils sont tous [tus]), a pronunciation Littré still condemned.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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
  5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 122a
  7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette