écarter

French

Etymology

According to the Trésor de la Langue Française, borrowed from Vulgar Latin *exquartare, from classical Latin quartus.

The Vocabolario Etimologico of Pianigiani gives Vulgar Latin *excarptare, formed with the supine Latin *excarptum of Latin *excarpere or Latin excerpere (“choose, select”). At the same time, Pianigiani adds an alternative etymology, not a fully explained one though, from Irish scar (past participle scartha), itself derived from Old Irish scaraid.

Compare Italian scartare and squartare, Spanish descartar, Portuguese descartar and English discard.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /e.kaʁ.te/
  • audio(file)

Verb

écarter

  1. to separate, move apart
  2. to spread, open (fingers, legs etc)
  3. to draw (curtains)
  4. to dismiss, rule out, turn down
  5. to remove a person from a job or position
    Après le scandale financier, le congrès a voté pour écarter le président du pouvoir.
    After the financial scandal, Congress voted to remove the president from power.
  6. to lose (Louisiana)
  7. (reflexive) to withdraw, diverge, deviate
  8. (reflexive) to stray (Louisiana)

Conjugation

Further reading

Anagrams

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