Etymologically
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triste

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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
  • 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)