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A Proposed Etymology: aller > *ad-iterare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Warren F. Manning
Warren F. Manning*
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
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Extract

The word aller has called forth a great variety of etymological explanations, none of which is completely satisfactory to the linguistic scholar. However, I make bold to offer a fresh contribution to the problem, in the hope that it will fulfill all three requirements of a good etymon, phonological, historical, and semantic.

The well-known hypothesis, that aller comes from the rapid giving of military commands, ambulemus, *amlemus, *allemus, offers serious phonological difficulties. Not only does ambulare give embler regularly in Old French, but, in addition, both ambulare and alare appear in the Reichenau Glosses. Furthermore, it is not necessary to seek a common etymon for the verb 'to go' in Romance, since the very confusion of forms existing in the conjugation of this verb in all the Romance tongues is enough warrant for positing a separate origin for the Northern French aller.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 13 , Issue 3: July-September , September 1937, pp. 186 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © 1937 by Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Cf. Körting, Lateinisch-Romanisches Wörterbuch3 s.v. (Paderborn, 1907).

2 Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 2.592.

3 A Defense of the Etymology allatus, ∗allare, aller; PMLA 49.1025–31 (1934).

4 This etymology is in the volume of studies dedicated to José Leite de Vasconcellos and published in Portugal. Professor Ford himself has not yet seen the printed volume.

5 Du Cange, Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, Tomus III, Parisiis, MDCCXXXIII: Iterare, Iter facere, óδoιπoρ∈îv in Gloss. Lat. Gr. occurrit apud S. Columbanum instr. 8. Fortunatum in Vita S. Paterni Episc. c. 7, in Vita S. Arnulfi Episc. Metens. c. 25 in Lege Longob. lib. 1. titul. 19. 8. tit. 25. 45 in Syndo Carisiac. 9. apud Ditmarum, &c.

6 Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis Regni Hungariae, condidit Antonius Bartal, Lipsiae, MCMI: Iterare, iter facere, petere aliquem locum; utazni. Georg. Sirm. 1.25, sed Rex volebat cum eo ad Turciam iterare.

7 Roberti Stephani, Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, torn. II, Londini, MDCC-XXXIV: Iterare, pro Ire posuit Gell. lib. 3. cap. 18. Sed eos Senatores, inquit, qui magistratum curulem nondum ceperant, pedibus iteravisse in curiam. Quidam codices legunt Itavisse: & recte, ut opinor. (Not rightly, for the syllable -er- was probably represented by the usual manuscript symbol.)

8 J. H. Baxter and Charles Johnson, Medieval Latin Word-List 234 (London, 1934).

9 W. Foerster, Wörterbuch zu Christian von Troyes 123 (Halle 1914); Godefroy, Dictionnaire de l'ancien français 3.331 ff. (Paris, 1881–1902); see also Philippe Fuchs, Das altfranzösische Verbum Errer (Erlangen, 1919).

10 edrat: Vie de saint Leger 69, 113; edrers: Vie de saint Alexis 190.

11 Foerster, Wörterbuch 182: meserrer < minus ∗iterare (sic).

12 Godefroy, Dictionnaire 3.137.

13 M. Grammont, La Dissimilation consonantique dans les langues indoeuropéennes et dans les langues romanes 16 (Dijon, 1897), law 5: ‘Il ne se produit pas de dissimilation quand l'étymologie des différentes parties du mot est évidente pour le sujet parlant'.

14 Godefroy, Dictionnaire 3.331.

15 On the other hand, these forms might be due to the obscuring force of the r. Cf. marché < mercatu, par < per, larmes < lermes, etc.

16 Elise Richter, Chronologische Phonetik des Französischen bis zum Ende des 8. Jahrhunderts 131 (Beihefte zur romanische Philologie, Heft 82, Halle/Saale, 1934).

17 According to Darmesteter's law, by which the pretonic part of a word is treated like the posttonic, ∗àdite-lare would give regularly ∗ad- or ∗at- + -ler. Cf. nitidum > net, putidum > put.

18 Richter, Phonetik 146.

19 Ibid. 92. Richter claims it is more probable that dissimilation preceded syncopation. For example, meretricem gave meltrice, but not ∗∗mertrice first.

20 Ibid. 176–7.

21 Alare and its compounds occur four times in the Reichenau Glosses: 1028 alatus factus, 1122 ultra alare, 1130 transalaret, 1131 transalavit.

22 Richter, Phonetik 223.

23 Ibid. 244.

24 Grammont, Dissim. 84.

25 Ibid. 84.

26 Ibid. 116. OFr. coronel for colonel, and pop. Fr. célébrai for cérébral, are founded on couronne and célèbre respectively. Sommelier does not come from sommerier, but is formed directly from somme and the ending -elier of tonnelier, bourrelier, etc. (128–9).

27 Ibid. 117.

28 Meyer-Lübke, Richter, and Hatzfeld and Darmesteter also cite some of these examples.

29 Meyer-Lübke, Grammaire des langues romanes 512 (Paris, 1890).

30 Richter, Phonetik 131.

31 Hatzfeld, Darmesteter et Thomas, Dictionnaire général de la langue française 133 (Paris, 1924).

32 Grammont, Dissim. 66–70.

33 Fuchs, Das altfranzösische Verbum Errer 48 (Erlangen, 1919).

34 Schwan-Behrens, Grammaire de l'ancien français2 511, translated by O. Bloch, (Leipzig, 1913). The forms in eu are dialectal, and, when found in Francian texts, are to be considered learned.

35 Kr. Nyrop, Grammaire historique de la langue française31.§32 (Copenhagen, 1914).

36 Hatzfeld, Darmesteter et Thomas, Dictionnaire 161.

37 Godefroy, Dictionnaire 4.453 : Par ces hauberges en gisent bien set vint (Garin le Loherain, 2e chans. XXXV, p. 152, P. Paris); 455: En ceste marche m'a haubergié Pepins (Gar. le Loh., 3e chans. I, P. Paris); 453: Tenant a haubergement Jehanne (1354, Arch. S. 208, pièce 7).

38 Ibid., 4.455: arberjaran (Passion 59, Koschwitz); arberget (Passion 388); herberget (Alexis st.14e, Stengel); herberges (Alexis st. 44b).

39 Ibid., 453: herberges (9 oct. 1529, procès-verb. Arch. Yonne, H 713); herberque (Cout, de Tournay, Cout. gén. 2.948, éd. 1635).

40 Hatzfeld, Darmesteter et Thomas, Dictionnaire 1231.

41 See Grammont, Dissim. 16 (law 5, cited in note 13); also R. G. Kent, Assimilation and Dissimilation, Language 12.4.249 (1936).

42 Cf. Thesaurus Linguae Latinae vol. 1 s.v. (Leipzig, Teubner, 1900): adito, -āvi, -āre, ab adire. Diom. gramm. 1.345.1 hoc ('adeo, adis') iteramus ‘adito, aditas’ dictitantes, ut Ennius (trag. 394) ‘ad eum aditavere’.

43 It is conceivable that there was in the popular speech a series of verbs: adire, aditare, ∗ aditerare, ∗aditelare, ∗aditinerare, etc.

44 J. Gilliéron et E. Edmont, Atlas linguistique de la France (Paris, 1902 ff.).

45 ∈ele: H. Marne, Yonne, Côte d'Or, H. Saône, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire; ∈la: H. Saône, Jura; ∈li: Vosges.

46 Cf. map 33, allumer, on which is found, throughout the extreme East, ∈lme with variations, especially in Meurthe-et-M., Vosges, H. Marne, and Côte-d'Or.

47 Gilliéron et Edmont, Atlas, carte 22, no. 65.

48 Ibid., carte 32, no. 65.

49 Oscar Bloch, Atlas linguistique des Vosges Méridionales (Paris, 1914) : no. 26, Corravilliers (canton de Faucogney), and no. 23, Château-Lambert (canton de Mélisey).

50 Gilliéron et Edmont, Atlas, carte 28, Toi, tu iras; also, carte 29, Qui vous ira.

51 Ibid., carte 28, and carte 29.

52 Gauchat, Jeanjaquet et Tappolet, avec collaboration de E. Muret, Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande 1.290 (Neuchâtel et Paris, 1924–33); Mais ce qui donne surtout une physionomie particulière à la conjugaison romande de aller, c'est le fait que, sur un territoire continu embrassant Vd. [Vaud], F. [Fribourg], N. [Neuchâtel], et B. [Berne], le fut.-cond. a été formé, depuis le moyen-âge, par le radical aller, dont le fut. régulier, allerai, aboutit aux types odri (Vd. F. N.) et a:dr∈ (B.). Ajoutons que cette formation, quoique possible partout, … ne s'est guère réalisée que dans les parlers de la S. R. [Suisse romande], où elle rattache, par exception, le Jura B. [bernois] aux cantons sud.

53 For typographical reasons, I have transcribed the dialectal forms in this paragraph in I. P. A. symbols.