Etymograph

English

gavotte

Gavotte comes from Old Occitan Gavot ‘Alp native’, and goes back to Old Provençal gava ‘crop’.

  1. Old Provençalmoderngava‘crop’
  2. Old Occitanc. 950–1500Gavot‘Alp native’literally ‘glutton, boor’
  3. Provençalprehistoric (reconstructed)gavoto‘dance of the mountain people’reconstructed
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1972gavotte

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Old Provençalmoderngava‘crop’
  2. Old Occitanc. 950–1500Gavot‘Alp native’literally ‘glutton, boor’
  3. Provençalprehistoric (reconstructed)gavoto‘dance of the mountain people’reconstructed
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1972gavotte

Earliest quotation: 1972, Carly Simon, You're so Vain: “You had one eye in the mirror as /…”

The story

From French, from Provençal gavoto (‘dance of the mountain people’), from Old Occitan Gavot (“Alp native”, literally “glutton, boor”), from gaver (‘force feed’), from Old Provençal gava (‘crop’); attested since the 1690s.

Every English word from Old Provençal gava

Today it means

noun A French dance, in either 4/4 or 2/2 time.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Old Provençal gava / gavotte

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