pourtant French · revision 17397

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=c. 1130, Eneas (portant)}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /puʁ.tɑ̃/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''pourtant'''^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|portant]] (about 1130), ''pourtant'' from the end of the 12th century, Anglo-Norman also ''purtaunt''.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(AND)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a compound of [[pour]] and [[tant]], at first written separately: “pour tant” “for so much, for all that”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)^(FEW|13/1, 90a)^(Wiktionary) “Tant” is inherited from [[la|tantum|t=so much]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found as ''portant'' about 1130 in the ''Roman d'Eneas'', meaning “because of that, for that reason”.^(GLLF 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Until the 17th century it meant “therefore”: Rabelais writes ''pourtant, mon filz bien aymé… retourne'' “so, my beloved son, come back”.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873) The modern sense of opposition, “nevertheless”, arose in negative sentences (''ne pourtant'', about 1445), where “not for all that” meant “not however”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Montaigne uses it in affirmative sentences, with ''et pourtant'' and ''mais pourtant'' (1580–1588).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Littré still marked the old sense “for that” as entirely obsolete.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1130 – ''Portant'' “for that reason”, in ''Eneas''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * c. 1445 – Opposition in a negative sentence, in Pierre de Hauteville.^(TLFi)

+ * 1580 – ''Et pourtant'', ''mais pourtant'' in Montaigne.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 17th century – The causal sense dies out.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adverb===

+ # [[m|en|yet]], [[m|en|however]], nevertheless: ''il est riche, pourtant il n'est pas heureux''.^(Larousse)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Stressing a fact against expectation: ''je te l'avais pourtant dit''.^(Larousse)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''Et pourtant'': and yet: ''et pourtant elle tourne''.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(obsolete)'' For that reason, therefore.^(Littré 1873)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pour]]

+ * [[tant]]

+ * [[partant]]

+ * [[autant]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}