Where does “contretemps” come from?
I need to trace this chain carefully, but I notice there's a problem: the chain appears corrupted or incorrectly ordered.
The chain given shows: French contretemps | French temps | Latin contra | Latin rota | PIE ret- | PIE temp- | PIE Hreth₂-
This doesn't form a coherent etymological path. "Contretemps" comes from French *contre-* (from Latin *contra*) + *temps* (from Latin *tempus*), but then the chain lists "Latin rota" (wheel) which is unrelated, followed by mixed PIE roots that don't clearly connect.
A legitimate English "contretemps" etymology would be:
- English contretemps ← French contretemps ← French contre + temps ← Latin contra + tempus
Since the chain as provided is incoherent and violates basic etym
contretemps (English): An unforeseen, inopportune, or embarrassing...
Definitions
- An unforeseen, inopportune, or embarrassing...
Ancestry of “contretemps”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | French | contretemps | a contretemps, a hitch, a hold-up, a setback |
| 2 | French | temps | time; weather; tense |
| 3 | Old French | temps | weather |
| 4 | Latin | tempus | time, period, age; season; kairos, right time,... |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | tempos | stretch |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | temp- | to extend, stretch, span; to stetch, string; to... |