trousser

Forms

trousser^[1] Old French trosser and trusser, with the less common torser and tourser that keep the order of the Latin consonants.^[2][3] The Anglo-Norman forms include truser, troser and trousser.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French trosser, inherited from Vulgar Latin *torsō, a Late Latin verb formed on *torsus, a variant beside Latin tortus of the past participle of torqueō (“to twist”).^[3][2][5][6] The /r/ moved before the vowel from the earliest texts, a metathesis also found in trop and troubler.^[2] The first sense, loading a pack animal, is explained by the cords wound round the load.^[5][2]

Cognate with Walloon trossî and Old Occitan trossar.^[7] Meyer-Lübke rejected other proposed bases, such as Gamillscheg's *torciō, because the Old French verb requires a base ending in a consonant followed by /s/.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) trusser means to load goods, especially on a beast of burden, or to load the animal itself: four hundred mules are trussez with gold and silver.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

From loading came the sense of packing up and bundling (about 1135), which has disappeared except in the old phrase trousser bagage “to pack up and leave” (1567).^[3][2] From the early 14th century the verb meant to lift up clothing; this is now dated, replaced in neutral use by retrousser.^[3][2] The erotic trousser une femme, from lifting skirts, appears in the 15th century and took the sense of possessing a woman sexually by 1872.^[3][2]

In the 16th century it also meant to prepare and to dress up, uses now lost, but trousser la queue of a horse (1583) survives.^[2] Figuratively it meant to carry off quickly, of a disease, and to dispatch a matter, and, from the early 17th century to compose a short piece quickly, as in trousser un sonnet.^[2] The participle bien troussé “neatly done”, said of a literary work from 1548, is still current.^[2][3] In cooking, trousser une volaille is to fold the limbs of a fowl and tie them to the body before cooking (1721).^[3][2]

English truss was borrowed around 1200 from the Anglo-French and Old French verb.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Trusser “to load” appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• c. 1135 – Trosser means to pack up.^[3]
• c. 1215 – The spelling trouser is recorded.^[3]
• early 14th century – It is used for lifting clothing.^[3][2]
• 1456–1467 – The Cent Nouvelles nouvelles has trousser sa dame.^[3]
• 1548 – Bien troussé is said of a literary work.^[3][2]
• 1567 – Trousser bagage is recorded in Amyot.^[3]
• 1721 – The cooking sense trousser une volaille appears.^[3]
• 1872 – Trousser une femme “to possess sexually” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (dated) To bind into a bundle: trousser du foin.^[10][3]
2. (cooking) To truss a fowl, folding its limbs and tying them to the body.^[10][3]
3. (dated) To hitch up a hanging garment; reflexively, to lift one's skirts.^[10][11]
4. (familiar) To lift a woman's skirts with sexual intent, hence to possess sexually.^[10][2]
5. (dated) To turn up or curl: trousser sa moustache.^[10]
6. (literary) To compose or do quickly and deftly;^[10][2] un compliment bien troussé is a neatly turned compliment.^[10][2]

Word family

• retrousser
• trousse
• trousseau
• détrousser

Related words

• tordre
• Latin torqueō
• English truss

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)