goutte French · revision 17536

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=late 10th century, Passion of Clermont|origins=la gutta}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ɡut/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''goutte''' ''f'' (plural gouttes)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|gote]] (about 980), [[m|fro|gute]], [[m|fro|goute]];^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary) ''goutte'' from about 1360, the second ⟨t⟩ being restored after the Latin spelling.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|gote]], [[inh|la|gutta|t=drop; spot; small particle]], an expressive formation in Latin, which also used it in architecture.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|4, 344a) The name of the disease, gout, is the same word: the illness was put down to drops of a corrupt humour reaching the joints.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Littré 1873) Classical Latin called gout of the feet [[m|la|podagra]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Cognate with [[it|gotta]], [[es|gota]], [[pt|gota]], [[ca|gota]] and [[oc|gota]], which also mean gout nearly everywhere.^(REW 1935)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The Clermont ''Passion'' (late 10th century) has ''gute'' for a small rounded quantity of liquid.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ As a tiny quantity it was used with ''ne'' to strengthen a negation, like ''pas'' and ''point'': ''ne veoir gote'' “to see nothing” is in ''Eneas'' (about 1160), and survives in the playful ''on n'y voit goutte''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) ''Goutte à goutte'' is found in 1170, and ''se ressembler comme deux gouttes d'eau'' in 1664;^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) Stendhal has ''la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase'' (1830).^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) The ''Ménagier de Paris'' (about 1393) calls the first wine running from the vat ''mère goute''.^(TLFi)

+

+ The disease is named ''male gote'' about 1170 and ''goute'' about 1200; the word was very common from the 16th to the 18th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) In architecture it names small cone-shaped ornaments (1568), in pharmacy a unit of measure (1700), and, from 1795 a drop of brandy, as in ''boire la goutte''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 10th century – ''Gute'', a drop, in the Clermont ''Passion''.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1160 – ''Ne veoir gote'' “to see nothing”.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1170 – ''Male gote'', the disease.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * c. 1360 – The spelling ''goutte'', in Froissart.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1568 – Architectural ornament, in Delorme.^(TLFi)

+ * 1664 – ''Se ressembler comme deux gouttes d'eau''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1795 – “Brandy”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1830 – ''La goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase'', in Stendhal.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|drop]] of liquid: ''une goutte d'eau'', ''il pleut à grosses gouttes'', ''goutte à goutte'', drop by drop.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # A very small quantity: ''une goutte de café''.^(Larousse)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Se ressembler comme deux gouttes d'eau'': to be as like as two peas.^(Le Robert)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''(familiar)'' [[m|en|brandy|alt=Brandy]], spirits: ''boire la goutte''.^(Larousse)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''Gouttes'' (plural): drops of a medicine.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(medicine)'' [[m|en|gout|alt=Gout]]: ''une crise de goutte''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(architecture)'' A small cone-shaped ornament under a [[triglyphe|alt=triglyph]].^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[compte-gouttes]]

+ * [[égoutter]]

+ * [[gouttelette]]

+ * [[goutteux]]

+ * [[gouttière]]

+ * [[dégoutter]]

+ * [[égout]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Goutte'' survives as a negative adverb in ''n'y voir goutte'' and ''n'y entendre goutte'', “to see, understand nothing at all”.^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}