chute French · revision 15617

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1360, Froissart|origins=la cadō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ʃyt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''chute''' ''f'' (plural chutes)^(Wiktionary)

+ Middle French ''cheute'' (about 1360), written ''chûte'' by the Académie in 1694; the modern spelling ''chute'' from 1762.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a reshaping, after the participle [[m|fro|cheüe]], of [[fro|cheoite|t=a fall]],^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) the feminine past participle of [[choir]] “to fall” used as a noun,^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005) [[inh|la-vul|*cadecta]], a popular participle formed on the model of [[m|la|collēctus]];^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989)^(FEW|2, 25a) [[m|fro|cheüe]] itself is from [[m|la-vul|*cadūta]].^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary) Both go back to [[la|cadō|t=to fall]].^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ Compare [[it|caduta]], [[es|caída]] and [[pt|caída]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first record is ''une chute de cheval'', a fall from a horse, in Froissart (about 1360);^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873) Old French ''cheoite'' is found earlier, in Benoît's ''Chronique des ducs de Normandie''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Besides falling, it came to mean the loss of hair (1534), the collapse of a building (before 1558) and the fall of a river, then a waterfall (1671).^(TLFi) Figuratively it is a fall from power or grace: the collapse of a state (1587), moral fall (1680), and the failure of a play or author (1690).^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) In rhetoric ''la chute'' is the close of a sentence or stanza (Guez de Balzac),^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) whence the modern punch line of a story.^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ The verb ''chuter'' is from 1828.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 12th century – Old French ''cheoite''.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1360 – ''Cheute de cheval'' (Froissart).^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+ * 1534 – ''Cheute des cheveulx''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1587 – The fall of a country or regime.^(TLFi)

+ * 1671 – ''Chute d'eau''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1690 – The failure of a play.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1828 – ''Chuter''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|fall]]: ''faire une chute''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A drop or decline: ''chute des prix'', ''chute de température''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A downfall or [[m|en|collapse]]: ''la chute de l'Empire''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Chute d'eau'': a [[m|en|waterfall]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The [[m|en|punch line]] of a joke or story.^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(religion)'' The Fall of man.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[parachute]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[choir]]

+ * [[la|cadō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}