What did trick mean?
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“
Tip
.
Old word and out of use…
”Furetière immediately pointed out in 1690!
Apparently his analysis was wrong: the word stuck quite alive.
“
Tip.
Art, profession
”, underlines Frédéric Godefroy in 1891 in his Dictionary of the old French language, where he radiographs yesterday's lexicon through various texts.
Thus, the trick was once assimilated to an activity: "
Some mestier estat or trick that one has
", writes Jean Bouchet in 1530 in The Triumphs of the noble Lady.
Read also: Aperitif, a word that has totally changed meaning
Cunning, assimilated to finesse and skill
In fact, installed in use, then existed in parallel the astute, assimilated to the smoothness and the skill, approaching what would then be the trick in the modern sense of the term.
An adjective from the same family has also disappeared: to be astute, that is to say clever.
In 1370, to Nicole Oresme, translator of a number of texts from Antiquity, to declare, for example, in her translation of Aristotle's Ethics that there are "people
who are prudent and who are
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