çà
See also: Appendix:Variations of "ca"
French edit
Etymology edit
From Middle French and Old French ça, from Vulgar Latin *ecce hāc. Compare Portuguese cá, Spanish acá. The grave accent now serves to distinguish it from ça (“that”). However, çà was already widely spelt thus before ça became common in writing, and in fact the accent was formerly also found for the latter. Thus perhaps by analogy with là. Compare also jà (where the accent has no clear purpose).
Pronunciation edit
Adverb edit
çà
Usage notes edit
- Today only used in the expression çà et là.
Derived terms edit
Interjection edit
çà
- so, well, then (with exhortative or intensive effect)
- (archaic) la! (expressing strong emotion of anger, surprise etc.)
References edit
- “çà”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.