sale French · revision 17251

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1160, Roman de Tristan|origins=gem-pro *salwaz}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /sal/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sale''' (plural sales)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|frk|*salo|t=murky, dull, dirty]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|17, 12b) The Germanic word is represented by [[goh|salo|t=murky, dull]], Middle High German “sal” and [[ang|salu|t=dark, dusky]], whence [[en|sallow]], Wiktionary takes it back to [[gem-pro|*salwaz|t=dusky, muddy]].^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary)^(REW 1935) Rey also cites [[sga|sail]] from the Celtic languages.^(DHLF 1992) Littré hesitated between this etymology and Chevallet's derivation from a Gaelic word for “filth”.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found in the ''Roman de Tristan'' (about 1160) and in Chrétien de Troyes (1176–81), of something that has lost its cleanness.^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ About 1210 it was said of a person who does not wash enough, and, from the 13th century of what is indecent (''pensee sale'').^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) By the late 15th century it meant of a dull, murky colour, as in ''gris sale'' (1611), the sense of the Frankish word.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) The moral sense, “contemptible”, appears in the 16th century (1576–85) and spread in the 19th, with ''sale type'' and many insults, ''sale gueule'' is in Courteline (1888).^(DHLF 1992)^(BHVF)^(TLFi) Before a noun it became a general depreciative: ''une sale affaire'' (Balzac, 1847), ''sale temps'' (1858, figuratively); ''c'est pas sale'' means “excellent”.^(DHLF 1992) A ''bombe sale'' (1968) gives heavy fallout.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1160 – ''Roman de Tristan''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * c. 1180 – The verb ''salir''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * c. 1210 – Of an unwashed person.^(TLFi)

+ * Mid-13th century – ''Pensee sale'' “indecent thought”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1584 – ''Salaud''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1611 – ''Gris sale'', Cotgrave.^(TLFi)

+ * 1847 – ''Sale affaire'', Balzac.^(TLFi)

+ * 1888 – ''Sale gueule'', Courteline.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|dirty]]: ''avoir les mains sales'', ''du linge sale''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Of a person, unwashed; messy in one's work.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # Of a colour, dingy, murky: ''un blanc sale''.^(Larousse)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # Indecent, obscene: ''une histoire sale''.^(TLFi)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(before the noun)'' Nasty, rotten, [[m|en|unpleasant]]: ''un sale temps'', ''une sale affaire'', ''un sale coup''.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''(before the noun)'' Contemptible, [[m|en|despicable]]: ''un sale type''.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[salir]]

+ * [[saleté]]

+ * [[salement]]

+ * [[salissant]]

+ * [[salissure]]

+ * [[salaud]]

+ * [[salope]]

+ * [[saloperie]]

+ * [[salopette]]

+ * [[saligaud]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[salopard]]

+ * [[saloper]]

+ * [[salopiaud]]

+ * [[en|sallow]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Placed after the noun, ''sale'' means physically dirty (''des mains sales''); before it, it is a general term of disparagement (''une sale histoire'').^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi) The familiar noun ''le sale'' is the dirty laundry: ''mettre au sale''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}