trouver French · revision 15922

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=inherited|attested=late 10th century, Vie de saint Léger|origins=grc τρόπος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /tʁu.ve/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''trouver'''^(Wiktionary)

+ [[fro|trover]], [[m|fro|truver]], ''trouver'' from the 13th century; dialect ''treuver''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|trover]], probably [[inh|la-vul|*tropō|alt=*tropāre]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|13/2, 319a) a derivative of [[la|tropus|t=figure of speech]], from [[grc|τρόπος|tr=trópos|t=turn, manner]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) The form is attested in Late Latin compounds such as “contropare” (see [[controuver]]) and “attropare” “to speak figuratively”.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Wartburg explains that “tropus” had come to mean “melody, song”, so that “*tropare” was first “to compose (a tune, a poem)”, then “to invent” and “to find”;^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) this sense survives in [[trouvère]] and [[troubadour]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992) P. Guiraud proposed instead a development from “to turn” to “to turn towards, meet”.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Diez and Littré derived it from [[la|turbō|t=to disturb]], through “to stir up, search”,^(Littré 1873) and Wiktionary notes the fishermen's practice of churning the water to drive fish into the net, as in Sardinian “turbare”.^(Wiktionary) The verb replaced Latin [[m|la|inveniō]] in French;^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) [[it|trovare]] comes from Gallo-Romance.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Compare [[pro|trobar]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Vie de saint Léger'' (second half of the 10th century) has it in the sense “to come upon by chance”;^(TLFi) the ''Vie de saint Alexis'' (about 1050) uses it for finding what one is looking for.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ By about 1100 the ''Chanson de Roland'' uses it for discovering by thought or invention,^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) and in 1155 Wace has ''trover'' “to compose in verse”, a sense lost in Middle French.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) About 1145–1150 it meant “to find (someone) in a certain state” and “to judge, consider”, whence Jean de Meun's ''trouver'' + quality and ''trouver bon que'' (1547).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) ''Aller trouver qqn'' dates from about 1200.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The reflexive ''se trouver'' “to be somewhere” is in Chrétien de Troyes (1176–1181), and ''il se trouve que'' “it happens that” in Commynes (about 1500);^(TLFi) ''si ça se trouve'' “it may well be” is popular speech of 1953.^(TLFi) Familiar phrases include ''la trouver mauvaise'' (1883) and ''la trouver saumâtre'' (Queneau, 1952).^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 10th century – In the ''Vie de saint Léger''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1050 – “To find what one seeks”, in ''Saint Alexis''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1100 – “To invent” in the ''Chanson de Roland''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1155 – “To compose verse”, in Wace.^(TLFi)

+ * 1176–1181 – ''Se trouver'' in Chrétien de Troyes.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1500 – ''Il se trouve que'' in Commynes.^(TLFi)

+ * 1611 – ''Trouver chaussure à son pied''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1953 – ''Si ça se trouve''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|find]] (what one is looking for); to come across by chance: ''trouver ses clés'', ''trouver un emploi''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # To find out, discover, think up: ''trouver la solution'', ''trouver le moyen de''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # To find (someone or something) in a given state: ''je l'ai trouvé changé''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # To think, consider: ''je le trouve sympathique'', ''trouver que''.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''Aller trouver qqn'': to go and see someone.^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''(reflexive)'' To be (situated); to find oneself, ''il se trouve que'': it happens that, ''si ça se trouve'': maybe.^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[retrouver]]

+ * [[trouvaille]]

+ * [[trouvère]]

+ * [[introuvable]]

+ * [[trouvable]]

+ * [[retrouvailles]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[troubadour]]

+ * [[trope]]

+ * [[controuver]]

+ * [[en|trove]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}