tomber French · revision 16354

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=onomatopoeia|attested=c. 1165, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /tɔ̃.be/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''tomber'''^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French ''tumber'' and ''tomber'', used side by side until the 16th century, when Rabelais and Ronsard still wrote ''tumber''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It was formed in Old French on an expressive stem [[der|fr|tumb-|t=fall, tumble]] imitating the sound of a fall or a sudden jump; it was probably a word of the jongleurs and acrobats, which travelled from one country to another.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(FEW|13/2, 403a) Parallel forms are [[ro|tumbă|t=somersault]], [[it|tombolare|t=to tumble]], [[es|tumbar]] and [[pt|tombar]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ It was influenced by Old French [[m|fro|tumer|t=to dance, leap, tumble]], borrowed from [[frk|*tūmōn]], compare [[goh|tūmōn|t=to turn round]] and [[de|taumeln|t=to stagger]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005) Wiktionary thinks the Frankish verb the more likely source.^(Wiktionary) “Tumer” had disappeared from standard French before the 16th century but survives in Walloon and Lorrain.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Littré, following Pott, instead derived “tumber” from “tumer” with an intrusive “b”.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ About 1165 Benoît de Sainte-Maure's ''Roman de Troie'' uses it of dancing and tumbling: ''e bale e tresche e tombe e saut'' “and dances and capers and tumbles and leaps”.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In 1170–83 Wace uses ''tumber'' for “to fall”.^(TLFi) Until the 16th century it meant both “to tumble” and, transitively, “to make fall”; the transitive use was blamed as a Gascon usage in the 17th century and revived in the 19th through wrestlers' slang.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Only at the end of the 15th century did it take the sense “to fall from a height by one's weight”, and so replaced [[choir]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Rain ''tombe'' from about 1495, and figurative uses followed: ''tomber en ruine'' (1531), ''laisser tomber'' (1534, “to drop someone”, 1679), ''tomber malade'', ''tomber des nues'' (1625), ''tomber de fatigue'' (1753), ''tomber sur'' “to attack” (1604).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The noun ''le tomber'' (''au tomber du jour'') is literary and dates from 1820–29.^(GLLF 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1165 – ''Tombe'' “tumbles” in the ''Roman de Troie''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1170–1183 – ''Tumber'' “to fall” in Wace's ''Roman de Rou''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1213 – Transitive “to make fall”.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * Late 15th century – The sense “to fall from a height”.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * c. 1495 – Of rain.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1534 – ''Laisser tomber''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1625 – ''Tomber des nues''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1845 – ''Tombeur'', in wrestling.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|fall]], fall down: ''tomber par terre'', ''tomber de cheval''.^(Le Robert)^(Larousse)

+ # To come down: ''la pluie tombe'', ''la nuit tombe''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+ # To hang down: ''ses cheveux tombent sur ses épaules''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ # To fall in battle; to be overthrown.^(TLFi)^(Le Robert)

+ # To become, fall into a state: ''tomber malade'', ''tomber amoureux''.^(Wiktionary)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ # ''Tomber sur'': to come across, run into; to attack.^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+ # ''Laisser tomber'': to drop; to abandon.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(transitive, familiar)'' To throw (an opponent); to seduce.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(BHVF)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(literary)'' ''Au tomber du jour'': at nightfall.^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[tombeur]]

+ * [[tombée]]

+ * [[retomber]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[choir]]

+ * [[tombola]]

+ * [[en|tumble]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}