tante French · revision 15913

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1200, Mort Garin|origins=la amita}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (France): /tɑ̃t/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Canada): /tãt/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Switzerland): /t̪ɑ̃t̪/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''tante''' ''f'' (plural tantes)^(Wiktionary)

+ [[fro|ante]] (about 1145, Wace), object case ''antain'', ''tante'' from about 1200, ''ante'' survived into the 16th century in ''belante'' (1512).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is an alteration of [[m|fro|ante]], [[inh|la|amita|t=father's sister]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|24, 453a) The origin of the ⟨t⟩ is disputed.^(Littré 1873)^(Wiktionary) The TLFi, Bloch–Wartburg and Rey see a nursery form, with the consonant repeated as in “tata”;^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992) the Grand Robert, the GLLF and the Petit Robert take it from “ta ante” “your aunt”, with the possessive run together with the noun.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) Littré, who rejected Diez's “euphonic” “t”, also chose “ta ante”, comparing Walloon kin terms built with the possessive (“matante”, “mononk”);^(Littré 1873) Wiktionary objects that such a fusion would be expected with the first person rather than the second.^(Wiktionary) Latin “amita” is related to “amma” “mummy”.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The old “ante” is the source of [[en|aunt]].^(DHLF 1992) Latin “amita” also gave [[pro|amda]] and [[ro|mătușă]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Mort Garin'' (about 1200) has ''tante'' “sister of one's father or mother”;^(TLFi) Wace (about 1145) still has ''ante''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Furetière (1690) adds the wife of an uncle, and the Académie (1694) has ''tante à la mode de Bretagne'' “first cousin of one's father or mother”, later “distant relative” (1875).^(TLFi) ''Grand-tante'' dates from 1538.^(DHLF 1992) In African French ''tante'' is above all the father's sister.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ In 19th-century slang ''ma tante'' was the pawnshop (1823), an ironic allusion to borrowers who pretended to have gone to their family;^(TLFi)^(BHVF)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992) ''oncle'' had the same sense in Belgium in 1642.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992) In 1834 ''tante'' was an insulting word for a passive homosexual, explained by a character in Balzac's ''Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes'';^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) it gave ''tantouse'' (1900).^(TLFi) The nursery words ''tata'' (1782) and ''tantine'' (1898) also go back to it.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1145 – ''Ante'' in Wace.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1200 – ''Tante'' in the ''Mort Garin''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1512 – ''Belante''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1538 – ''Grand-tante''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1690 – “Wife of an uncle”, in Furetière.^(TLFi)

+ * 1694 – ''Tante à la mode de Bretagne''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1823 – ''Ma tante'' “the pawnshop”.^(BHVF)

+ * 1834 – The slang sense “homosexual”.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|aunt]]: the sister of one's father or mother; the wife of one's uncle.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''Tante à la mode de Bretagne'': a first cousin of one's father or mother; a distant relative.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(familiar, dated)'' ''Ma tante'': the pawnshop.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(vulgar, offensive)'' An effeminate homosexual man.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[tantouze]]

+ * [[grand-tante]]

+ * [[tantine]]

+ * [[tata]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[oncle]]

+ * [[tonton]]

+ * [[cousin]]

+ * [[la|amita]]

+ * [[en|aunt]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}