| | The current usage of ''bistraud'' in the Angevin dialects is mostly limited to a pastoral context, i.e. "shepherd, herder" etc. This would appear to be a derivation from ''biste'', a regional word for "goat", with an agent suffix added to denote ownership or occupation. I propose that this comes from Old French ''beste'', a word which incidentally survives unchanged in usage or spelling among the Normandoise. This derives from Latin ''bestia'', which had a variety of meanings from "wild animal" to "beast of burden". Many rural terms in French ultimately derive from Latin words which once had far broader implications- for example, ''pondre'' (to lay an egg), derives from Latin ''pendere'' (to weigh or hang). This same word produced French ''penser'' (to think) via its frequentative ''pensare'' and ''poise'' via its past participle ''pensus''. In the same way, ''bestia'' may have retained its general meaning of "animal" in some French dialects while undergoing a semantic narrowing in Angevin. | | The current usage of ''bistraud'' in the Angevin dialects is mostly limited to a pastoral context, i.e. "shepherd, herder" etc. This would appear to be a derivation from ''biste'', a regional word for "goat", with an agent suffix added to denote ownership or occupation. I propose that this comes from Old French ''beste'', a word which incidentally survives unchanged in usage or spelling among the Normandoise. This derives from Latin ''bestia'', which had a variety of meanings from "wild animal" to "beast of burden". Many rural terms in French ultimately derive from Latin words which once had far broader implications- for example, ''pondre'' (to lay an egg), derives from Latin ''pendere'' (to weigh or hang). This same word produced French ''penser'' (to think) via its frequentative ''pensare'' and ''poise'' via its past participle ''pensus''. In the same way, ''bestia'' may have retained its general meaning of "animal" in some French dialects while undergoing a semantic narrowing in Angevin. |
| | + | Please, explain, why would a French word be respelled with a final o replacing ot or aud. Is a final -o common for French spelling at all? Why would syllables, such as -aud or -ot, be changed to -o in bistro? And why words, such as argot and pataud, remained unchanged? |
