To express the idea of intensity, the French language has long hesitated between too, very, enough, many, and even too much better ! You want to receive aut
To express the idea of intensity, the French language has long hesitated between too, very, enough, many, and even too much better !
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Do not lie : I am sure that this has already happened to you. When your son, your nephew or your student starts : “This is too good !”, you rétorquez in a tone with no reply to what young ignorantin: “We don’t say too much, you said very.” So one advice : don’t read this letter to the person concerned, because he could use it against you. Because for a long time, too meant “very”…
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This is the cruel truth : our too corresponds to the evolution of a word made by the Franks : thorp, which referred to a cluster, a group, a village. This is why, at the outset, too, had simply the sense of “a lot” and does not indicate that absolutely not excess. In the most ancient manuscripts, there is also too much (1175) – yes -but also too much better (1360) or too more (1381) ! This original meaning is kept in expressions such as “you are too kind”, “I don’t know that too” or, on a more familiar, “he is too cute, this little”.
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This same thorp is also the origin of the word troupe. In the earliest texts (1178), the term refers to any group of people, and then specialize to appoint a body of soldiers (1477), and then a group of actors (1607). A distinction will be little by little to distinguish the group, set of persons, of the flock, a gathering of pets.
is this an innovation in language, launched by teens in the Fourteenth century and attempts to provoke their parents ? It is in any case at the end of the Middle Ages, that too begins to take the meaning of “more than is necessary”. And give up as very. From the latin trans (“beyond”, “through”), this adverb meant originally “full”, “part”. It was also with the meaning “behind” and “after”, before he takes one of the “highest point”.
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To express a strong intensity, very is found, however, compete with a host (from the latin multum, “in number, many”) and especially with “a lot” (at the start beautiful/biau cop). If the first is today reserved for the style archaïsant, the second has always been a great success, especially in the classical language of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries, where it even appears in phrases such as there is a lot nice. Conversely, despite its employment by established authors, the use of very is makrooh in phrases such as “Genoa is very threatened by the Piedmontese” (Voltaire) or “they were very irritated the unhappy man” (Leconte de Lisle).
In this battle to express the depth, the strength or liveliness, it is still necessary to say a word of enough. From the Eleventh to the Sixteenth century, the phrase is synonymous with “very, very, much”. It is then that its meaning evolves to go back to the one it had in the popular latin adsatis, itself derived from the classical latin satis “enough” (which gave our satiety). That said, in expressions such as, “it is enough!” the adverb covers to turn the idea of excess, of reaction to what has become unbearable. This means that, in this case, it is exactly equal to “too”. Or “very”, according to the times…
Sources
historical Dictionary of the French language, Le Robert.
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Date Of Update: 22 May 2020, 08:59
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: newstars.edu.vn