tache French · revision 17534

+ {{infobox|confidence=disputed|formation=inherited|attested=late 11th century, Rashi's glosses|origins=got 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /taʃ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''tache''' ''f'' (plural taches)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|teche]] (about 1100), [[m|fro|taje]], [[m|fro|take]] (late 11th century); ''tache'' from about 1160–1175.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is uncertain.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007) The explanation most often given (Wartburg in the FEW, Bloch and Wartburg, Rey) makes it [[inh|fro|tache]], [[inh|la-vul|*tacca|t=spot, sign]], borrowed under the late Empire from [[got|𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃|tr=taikns|t=sign]] (compare [[de|Zeichen]]), the /k/ being doubled under the influence of the following /n/.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(FEW|17, 293a) The Old French form with /e/ would come from a type [[m|la-vul|*tecca]], after the Gothic diphthong had become /ē/;^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) Italian keeps both, [[it|tacca|t=notch, spot]] and [[it|tecca|t=defect]], beside [[pro|taca]] and [[ca|taca]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) The wide spread of the word and the palatalization of its /k/ show that it entered Latin under the late Empire.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ The TLFi finds this hard to accept, for its sound changes and because a word meaning only “sign” does not easily explain the senses “stain”, “mark on the skin” and “quality”.^(TLFi) Following Joppich-Hagemann, it takes [[tacher]] as the base of the family, from a popular Latin [[m|la-vul|*tagicō]] from [[m|la|tangō|t=to touch]], influenced by [[m|la|tingō|t=to dye]], with the forms in /e/ from [[m|la-vul|*tigicō]] from the second verb; the noun would then be a deverbal.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007) Guiraud similarly derived the verb from the supine of the verb “to touch”, a stain being a fingermark.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Chanson de Roland'' (about 1100) has ''teche'' in the neutral sense of a distinguishing quality, good or bad: ''tetches a males e mult grant felonie''; the glosses of Rashi (late 11th century) have ''taje'' for a stain left by a dirty substance.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense “quality” lasted until the 14th century, or the 17th for Bloch and Wartburg, by which time the negative value had won.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) From the 12th century it meant a moral flaw or a stain on one's honour, as in ''sans tache'' and ''l'Agneau sans tache'' (1553), Christ.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873) A mark on the skin is from the 12th century, giving ''tache de vin'' (1694) and ''taches de rousseur''; the natural markings of an animal's coat or plumage are from about 1393.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Mersenne wrote of the sun's spots in 1634.^(BHVF)^(DHLF 1992) In painting the word was first pejorative (1755), as in ''faire tache'', then from Taine (1865) a patch of colour standing out against its background, which led to [[tachisme]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) ''Faire tache d'huile'' “to spread gradually” is from the 19th century, and in familiar French ''une tache'' is a hopeless person.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 11th century – ''Taje'', a stain, in Rashi's glosses.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1100 – ''Teche'' “quality”, in the ''Chanson de Roland''.^(TLFi)

+ * First half of the 12th century – A stain on one's honour, in the Oxford Psalter.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1175 – The form ''tache'', in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1393 – Markings on an animal.^(TLFi)

+ * 1634 – Sunspots, in Mersenne.^(BHVF)

+ * 1755 – In painting, in Diderot.^(TLFi)

+ * 1835 – ''Faire tache d'huile'', in the Académie.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|stain]], a dirty mark: ''une tache de graisse''.^(Larousse)^(TLFi)

+ # A spot or patch of a different colour: ''taches de rousseur'', ''les taches du léopard'', ''taches solaires'', sunspots.^(Le Robert)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # A mark on the skin, ''tache de vin'', a [[m|en|birthmark]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A [[m|en|blemish]], a stain on one's honour: ''sans tache''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''Faire tache'': to clash, to be out of place, ''faire tache d'huile'', to spread.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(painting)'' A patch of colour.^(TLFi)^(Le Robert)

+ # ''(familiar)'' A useless, contemptible person.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[tacheté]]

+ * [[tacher]]

+ * [[tacheter]]

+ * [[entacher]]

+ * [[détacher]]

+ * [[tachisme]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}