résoudre French · revision 38620

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=early 13th century, Reclus de Molliens|origins=la solvō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ʁe.zudʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''résoudre'''^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French past participle ''resous'' (late 12th or early 13th century); Middle French [[m|frm|résouldre]].^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary) The past participles are ''résolu'' and the rarer ''résous'', feminine ''résoute''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|resolvō|t=to untie, loosen; to dissolve; to pay; to explain]], adapted after the Old French verb [[m|fro|soudre|t=to pay]], itself from [[la|solvō|t=to loosen, release; to pay; to solve]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989)^(FEW|10, 302b) The Latin verb is formed from intensive [[m|la|re-]] and the simple verb.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) Before the infinitive, Old French only had the participle [[m|fro|resout]], from [[m|la|resolūtus]], mostly as a technical term for “broken up, dissolved”.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Wiktionary instead treats the verb as inherited, through Old French [[m|fro|resoldre]].^(Wiktionary) The verb displaced the more direct borrowing [[m|frm|résolver]] (1370).^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found in the early 13th century in Reclus de Molliens, as ''estre resous'' “to be paid back, compensated” (of a loss suffered by someone), the sense of Old French ''soudre''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) This sense, still seen in ''se résoudre de'' “to pay off” in 1498, died out in the 16th century.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The active verb appears about 1300 with the physical sense “to break up (a body) into its elements, make disappear”, as in Oresme's ''corps mixtes … resoluz en poudre'' (1377); by extension it meant turning something into a simpler state (about 1462).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) The pronominal ''se résoudre'' meant “to separate, divide” (about 1360) and later “to dissolve” (1690).^(DHLF 1992) Technical uses followed: in medicine, making a tumour disappear (about 1560), in law, annulling a contract (1668, La Fontaine), and in music, resolving a dissonance (1752, Rousseau).^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ In the 15th century the verb took the sense “to find the solution to”, first in logic and then in mathematics (''résoudre une équation'', 1765).^(DHLF 1992) The sense “to decide” developed in Middle French, with ''resoldre de'' (1356); ''résoudre quelqu'un à'' dates from the late 16th century and ''se résoudre à'' from the early 17th.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The participle ''résolu'' took the sense “firm in one's purpose” in 1478–1480, the only one of its senses to survive.^(DHLF 1992) The main senses are shared out between two nouns: [[résolution]] for dissolving and deciding, [[solution]] for solving.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Early 13th century – ''Estre resous'' “to be repaid”, in Reclus de Molliens.^(TLFi)

+ * 1356 – ''Resoldre de'' “to decide to”.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1377 – Oresme uses it for breaking bodies up into their elements.^(TLFi)

+ * 1478–1480 – ''Résolu'' “determined”.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * c. 1560 – A medical sense, in Ambroise Paré.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1668 – “To annul (a contract)”, in La Fontaine.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1752 – The musical sense, in Rousseau.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1765 – ''Résoudre une équation''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # ''(literary or technical)'' To [[m|en|dissolve]], break up or turn into something else: ''la glace se résout en eau''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''(medicine)'' To make a swelling or [[m|en|tumour]] disappear gradually.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''(law)'' To [[m|en|annul]] a contract or sale.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+ # To [[m|en|solve]], find the answer to: ''résoudre un problème'', ''résoudre une équation''.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # To decide, determine: ''résoudre de partir'', ''résoudre quelqu'un à'', to persuade someone to.^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''Se résoudre à'': to make up one's mind to, bring oneself to.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[irrésolu]]

+ * [[résolu]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[résolution]]

+ * [[solution]]

+ * [[la|resolvō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}