triste

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʁist/^[1]

Forms

triste (plural tristes)^[1] Old French trist (late 10th century), triste from about 1130–45.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin trīstis (“sad, sorrowful; gloomy, stern; ill-omened”), which about 1130 refashioned the inherited Old French trist.^[3][2][1][5] “Trist” came from late Latin “tristus”, altered under the influence of “maestus” “dejected” or “laetus” “joyful”; the keeping of /s/ before /t/ in French shows learned influence.^[2][1] Rey says the Latin word has no known etymology, its structure recalling a reduplicated noun and Old Armenian տրտում (trtum, “sad”).^[2]

Compare Italian triste, Italian tristo, Old Occitan trist, Spanish triste, Portuguese triste and Romanian trist.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vie de saint Léger (second half of the 10th century) has trist, triste is in the Roman d'Eneas (about 1130) and in Wace (about 1145), of a person grieved, sorrowful.^[3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

It qualified a grieved person and a sad, unhappy event, the dominant use, and about 1160 a stern, severe person or thing.^[2] A tristre mangier was a poor meal (about 1150), and a face or manner expressing sorrow is triste from 1213, whence the chevalier de la Triste Figure, Don Quixote (Furetière, 1690).^[3][2][4] Of people who by nature never laugh it is found about 1380, and of what inspires melancholy, a colour or the weather, from 1636–90.^[2][4] Cotgrave (1611) records triste comme un bonnet de nuict sans coiffe.^[3][7] Avoir le vin triste (1694) and faire triste mine followed.^[2] Placed before the noun, it means “wretched, contemptible” (1671): un triste individu (1802), un triste sire.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 10th century – Trist, Vie de saint Léger.^[3]
• c. 1130 – Triste, Roman d'Eneas.^[4]
• c. 1150 – A poor meal.^[3]
• c. 1165 – Tristesse.^[2]
• c. 1175 – Tristement.^[2]
• 1356 – Attrister.^[2]
• 1611 – Triste comme un bonnet de nuit, Cotgrave.^[3]
• 1671 – “Contemptible”.^[2]
• 1879 – Triste sire.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sad, unhappy: être triste, triste à mourir, triste comme un bonnet de nuit.^[8][9][1]
2. Melancholy by nature, gloomy: un enfant triste.^[8][2]
3. Expressing sadness: un air triste, faire triste mine.^[9][2]
4. Saddening, depressing: une triste nouvelle, un film triste; dreary: un temps triste.^[9][4]
5. Unfortunate, deplorable: dans un triste état.^[4][2]
6. (before the noun) Wretched, poor, contemptible: un triste individu, un triste sire.^[2][3]

Word family

• tristement
• tristesse
• attrister

Related words

• contrister
• Latin trīstis

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 302a
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)