rater French · revision 16929

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=derivation|attested=1715, Lesage, Gil Blas}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ʁa.te/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''rater'''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|fr|rat|-er]], made after the older phrase “prendre un rat”, said of a firearm that failed to go off.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) That phrase is found as “prendre rat” in 1651 and as “prendre un rat” in 1668, when it also meant “to fail”; the verb replaced it, and it went out of use in the 19th century.^(DHLF 1992) Rey reports Guiraud's explanation of the phrase: Old French [[m|fro|raster]] “to scrape, gnaw” (see [[ratisser]]), the wheel of the musket and later the hammer of the gun scraping without striking a spark.^(DHLF 1992) A verb [[rateler]] “to hunt rats” (1611), later found in a shorter form (1743–1752), has died out.^(DHLF 1992)

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+ Littré rejected the story that students made the verb from the canon-law formula “matrimonium ratum, sed non confirmatum”, since the word is too recent for so old a source.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lesage uses it in ''Gil Blas'' (1715) for failing in an undertaking.^(TLFi) The Académie recorded it in 1718, both for a gun that does not fire and for not carrying a task through.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the start it meant both missing the game one aimed at because the shot did not go off, and failing at something;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Marivaux has the intransitive “to fail” in 1722.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) ''Rater son coup'' is recorded in 1833, and in 1873 Flaubert uses it for failing to meet someone.^(TLFi) In the negative it became familiar: ''ne pas rater quelqu'un'' “to get even with someone” (1904) and ''ne pas en rater une'' “never to miss a chance to put one's foot in it” (1929).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

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+ The past participle [[raté]] was used as a noun for a misfire of a gun (1836), then for a person who has failed in life (1867) and for the misfiring of an engine (1890).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) Rey calls ''rater'' the familiar equivalent of [[manquer]].^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1651 – ''Prendre rat'' is said of a gun that fails to fire.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1715 – ''Rater'' “to fail in”, in Lesage's ''Gil Blas''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1718 – The Académie records the verb, of a gun that does not fire.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1722 – Intransitive “to fail”, in Marivaux.^(TLFi)

+ * 1833 – ''Rater son coup''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1867 – ''Un raté'', a failure of a man, in the Goncourts.^(TLFi)

+ * 1873 – “To miss (someone)”, in Flaubert's letters.^(TLFi)

+ * 1890 – ''Ratés'' of an engine.^(TLFi)

+ * 1929 – ''Ne pas en rater une''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # ''(intransitive)'' Of a gun or charge, to fail to go off, to [[m|en|misfire]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(intransitive, familiar)'' To [[m|en|fail]], to go wrong: ''l'affaire a raté''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(transitive)'' To miss what one was aiming at: ''rater un lièvre''.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(transitive)'' To miss (a train, an event, a person): ''rater son train''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(transitive, familiar)'' To botch, [[m|en|bungle]]: ''rater sa vie''.^(Wiktionary)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(familiar)'' ''Ne pas en rater une'': never to miss a chance to blunder.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[raté]]

+ * [[ratage]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[rat]]

+ * [[ratisser]]

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}