nettoyer French · revision 17552

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=late 12th century, Sermons of Saint Bernard|origins=la nitidus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /nɛ.twa.je/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA: /ne.twa.je/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''nettoyer'''^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|netoiier]], [[m|fro|nattïer]], ''naitoier'';^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) ''nettoyer'' from 1350.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a remaking, after the adjective [[net]], of Old French [[m|fro|noiier|t=to clean; to free]] (first half of the 12th century), which is [[inh|la-vul|*nitidiō]], a verb formed on [[m|la|nitidus|t=shining, polished; clean]].^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|7, 144a) [[ca|nedejar]] comes from the same Latin type, and the old verb survives in a Vosges dialect word for scraping vegetables.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The senses of the French verb developed from those of the adjective.^(TLFi)

+

+ Littré instead saw the adjective with the suffix ⟨-oyer⟩, like Italian ⟨-eggiare⟩.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Sermons'' of Saint Bernard (late 12th century) have ''nattïer son cuer en la confessïon'', to cleanse one's heart in confession; a 13th-century manuscript of Chrétien's ''Erec'' has wounds ''netoiees et lavees''.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ About 1210 Robert de Clari uses it for freeing someone from an illness, and about 1260 a chronicler for clearing a city of the bodies of the Saracens; the ''Établissements de Saint Louis'' (1272) speak of clearing a jurisdiction of bad men and women.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873) In the army ''nettoyer les tranchées'' is in Pomey (1671).^(TLFi)

+

+ Robert Estienne (1538) has the sense “to clean out (someone's money)”, and the Académie (1694) “to strip a house bare”.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) La Fontaine (1678) uses it for squandering a heap of pistoles, and in popular speech it has meant “to kill, liquidate” since 1844.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) Mountaineers speak of cleaning a route of vegetation (1933) or of pitons (1964).^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 12th century – “To cleanse (the heart)”, in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1210 – “To free from an illness”, in Robert de Clari.^(TLFi)

+ * 1262 – ''Naitoier le puis'', to clean a well.^(TLFi)

+ * 1350 – The spelling ''nettoyer''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1538 – “To clean out (of money)”, in Robert Estienne.^(TLFi)

+ * 1671 – ''Nettoyer les tranchées''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1844 – “To kill”, in popular speech.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|clean]]: ''nettoyer la maison'', ''nettoyer à sec''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+ # To clear (a place) of unwanted people or things, ''(military)'' to mop up.^(TLFi)^(Le Robert)

+ # ''(familiar)'' To clean out (someone of their money): ''se faire nettoyer au jeu''; to strip (a place) bare.^(Le Robert)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(slang)'' To kill, bump off.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''Nettoyer les écuries d'Augias'': to clean the Augean stables.^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[nettoyage]]

+ * [[nettoyeur]]

+ * [[nettoiement]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[net]]

+ * [[netteté]]

+ * [[la|nitidus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}