saboter French · revision 16019

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 1300}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /sa.bɔ.te/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''saboter'''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed from [[sabot]] with the verb ending “-er”.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Littré 1873) The sense “to botch” may come from the old sense “to shake, knock” (early 14th century, “caboter” in the “Ovide moralisé”, Old Occitan “sabotar”), whence “to torment, mistreat” (Oudin, 1640).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Wiktionary repeats the story of mill workers throwing their clogs into machinery.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ About 1300 it meant “to knock, shake”, perhaps in connection with the old sense of ''sabot'' “spinning top”;^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) Thierry (1564) has it for playing with a top.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Furetière (1690) records “to clatter about in clogs”, still alive regionally, and the dictionaries give it only as intransitive until the late 18th century.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) In 1808 (d'Hautel) it appears with the sense “to do quickly and badly”, now usual (''saboter un travail'').^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Technical, neutral uses are “to full cloth” (1832), “to shoe a pile” (1842) and “to notch railway sleepers” (1872–1875).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ In 1897 the anarchist Émile Pouget's ''Le Père Peinard'' used it for acting so as to make an undertaking fail, and in 1907 it meant deliberately damaging industrial plant, whence ''sabotage'' (late 19th century) and ''saboteur''.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992) In African French ''saboter'' also means to heckle or treat with contempt.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1300 – “To knock, shake”.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1564 – “To play with a top”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1640 – “To torment”, in Oudin.^(TLFi)

+ * 1690 – “To clatter in clogs”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1808 – “To botch”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1872 – To notch railway sleepers.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1897 – “To make fail”, in Pouget.^(TLFi)

+ * 1907 – To damage plant deliberately.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|sabotage]]: ''saboter une machine'', ''saboter un projet''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # To botch, bungle: ''saboter un travail''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(technology)'' To notch (railway sleepers); to shoe (a pile).^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(intransitive, dated)'' To clatter about in clogs.^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[sabotage]]

+ * [[saboteur]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sabot]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}