tutu

Forms

tutu m (plural tutus)^[1]

Etymology

It is a nursery alteration from French cucu (“little bottom”), itself a reduplication of cul.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} Bloch and Wartburg likewise see a playful use of a nursery word drawn from the same word.^[7] The GLLF keeps the ballet word apart and calls it an expressive formation, the syllable ⟨tu-⟩ doubled.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, about 1860, in a booklet on Alfred de Musset as a child quoted by Monselet, is a child's word for the bottom.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The nursery word for the buttocks was specialized in 1881 as the name of a dancer's tight-fitting drawers, recorded from the librarian of the Opéra, and then of the short, flared gauze skirt of the ballerina.^[2][3][4] In this sense it became a technical and everyday word and lost its familiar overtones.^[3][4]

The compound tutu panpan, from panpan “smack” and tutu, first meant a spanking (1911), and later sexual intercourse.^[3] English tutu was borrowed in 1910.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1860 – First record, “a child's bottom”.^[2][3]
• 1881 – A dancer's tight drawers, then the ballet skirt.^[2][3][5]
• 1883 – Donner sur votre tutu in Fustier's supplement to Delvau.^[2]
• 1890 – The GLLF's date for the familiar sense, in Monselet.^[8]
• 1910 – English borrows it as tutu.^[9]
• 1911 – Tutu panpan “a spanking”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (familiar, childish) The bottom, buttocks.^[2][8]
2. (dance) A tutu, the short, flared skirt of layered tulle or gauze worn by classical ballet dancers.^{[5][6][10][2]}

Related words

• cul
• cucu
• English tutu

Usage notes

Faire panpan-tutu means to give a spanking.^[2][8] Two slang words are spelled the same: tutu “wine”, perhaps an alteration of slang tortu (1836),^[3] and tutu “tuberculous”, recorded in 1952 and formed by doubling the first syllable of tuberculeux.^[4][11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF