cette

See also: Cette

French

Alternative forms

• ceste, cête (obsolete)
• c’tte (colloquial)

Etymology

From Middle French ceste, from Old French ceste, from Vulgar Latin *ecce ista, feminine of *ecce iste.

The loss of internal /s/ triggered compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. Due to the unstressed position of this pronoun, however, the length was soon lost again, which explains the spelling without a circumflex (though the form cête was occasionally used). Compare notre and le nôtre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: cet, Cette, sept, set, Sète
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Determiner

cette f

1. feminine singular of ce

Related terms

• ce, c’
• cet, c’t, c’tte

Further reading

• “cette”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈket.te/, [ˈkɛt̪ːɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃet.te/, [ˈt͡ʃɛt̪ːe]

Verb

cette

1. second-person plural present active imperative of cedo

References

• “cette”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cette in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.