English
retirement
Retirement comes from French retirer ‘withdraw, retire’, from tirer ‘to draw, drag, pull’, and ultimately from Vulgar Latin *tīrāre.
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*tīrārereconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400tirer‘to pull’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form‘to pull’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘to draw’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentretirer‘withdraw’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentretirement
- Englishearliest quotation 1788same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*tīrārereconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400tirer‘to pull’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form‘to pull’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘to draw’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentretirer‘withdraw’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentretirement
- Englishearliest quotation 1788same form
Earliest quotation: 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft: “When her mother frowned, and her friend looked cool,…”
Formed from retire + -ment
Vulgar Latin *tīrāre ‘to pull, draw’
Old French tirer ‘draw, pull’
Old French retirer
Middle French retirer ‘draw back’
English retire
Linked words
through Proto-Germanic *teraną ‘to tear, snatch, tug’
through Old French tirer ‘to pull’
through French tirer ‘to draw, drag, pull’
Today it means
noun An act of retiring; withdrawal.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Vulgar Latin *tīrāre / retirement