estoner

Forms

estoner (present participle estonant; past participle estoné; first-person singular present eston)^[1]

• estuner, estouner^[1][2]

The verb is spelled estoner in Chrétien de Troyes, and the past participle estonez and the forms estone, estonent and estona occur there.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *extonō (“to stun”),^[4][5][6][7] a form of Latin attonō (“to strike with thunder; to stun”) in which the prefix was changed to ex- (“out”).^[5][6][8] The classical verb is formed on tonō (“to thunder”).^[5][1]

Gamillscheg dates the word to the 12th century,^[8] but it is already in the Chanson de Roland and in Rashi's glosses.^[6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DEAF's earliest record is in Rashi's French glosses on the Talmud, of the end of the 11th century (manuscript about 1190),^[10][11] where the verb, written in Hebrew letters, glosses a word meaning “to shake”.^[9] In the Chanson de Roland, about 1100, it is intransitive, “to be stunned” by a violent blow, in the form estonat.^[6][12][13]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense came first: in Chrétien de Troyes a blow on the helmet stuns a knight, two fighters stun each other, and bells make a whole palace ring.^[3] The transitive “to stun, daze” was the usual use from the 12th to the 16th century.^[5][6] The sense “to strike with amazement, surprise” is recorded from about 1220, in Gautier de Coinci.^[6] Bloch and Wartburg note that a moral shock was the ordinary meaning until the 17th century, when the weaker modern sense of French étonner appeared.^[14]

Timeline

• 1085–1100 – in Rashi's French glosses on the Talmud, “to shake”.^[11][9]
• c. 1100 – estonat, “was stunned”, in the Chanson de Roland.^[6][12][15]
• 1155 – first Anglo-Norman record cited by the AND.^[2]
• c. 1165 – estone in the Roman de Troie.^[16]
• c. 1170 – estone, “stuns”, in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[3][17]
• c. 1220 – “to astound, surprise”, in Gautier de Coinci.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. to stun or daze someone with a violent blow.^[3][2]
2. to shake, to cause a physical shock.^[9][7]
3. to make something resound, to set ears ringing.^[3][2]
4. to astound or take by surprise.^[2][6]
5. (intransitive) to be stunned; to lose consciousness.^[2][6]
6. (past participle) stunned, dazed; struck dumb.^[3][2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the verb from 1155 and records the spellings estuner and estouner and forms in -ir such as estonir.^[2] Insular texts extend it to taking someone by surprise, overthrowing, weakening a building, and, in the participle, to a person numb or unresponsive.^[2] Etymonline derives the English word stun from Middle English astonen, which it takes from this verb.^[18]

Descendants

• Middle French estonner (→ French étonner)^[1]
• Norman êtonner^[1]
• Picard ètonneu^[1]
• Walloon èstèner^[1]
• Middle English astonen (borrowed; → English stun)^[18]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the DÉCT and the AND all head the word estoner;^{[19][20][3][2]} the DMF has it under estonner.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. estoner
3. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. estoner
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3:329
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. étonner
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. estoner
8. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 429
9. ^ a b c d Katan, Moshe (1988), Otzar La'azei Rashi: the Old French glosses of Rashi, Jerusalem; digital edition Sefaria, p. s.v. estoner
10. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. estoner
11. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. RaschiD2
12. ^ a b UD Old French PROFITEROLE and UD Middle French PROFITEROLE treebanks, Universal Dependencies (from the SRCMF and the Base de français médiéval; texts by DEAF siglum), p. RolS
13. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. RolS
14. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 280
15. ^ Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. RolS
16. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
17. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. ErecF
18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:1407
20. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 3:619
21. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. étonner