prettygoodword (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prettygoodword) wrote2012-02-21 07:24 am
prettygoodword) wrote2012-02-21 07:24 am
outrance
outrance (oo-TRAHNS) - n., the extreme limit, the utmost extremity.
Now largely dead except in the adverbial form à outrance reborrowed from French, used to describe combat to the very end, i.e., to the death. The original usage dates to Middle English, either via Anglo-Norman or direct from Old French (I'm unclear on the timing here) oltrance, from outrer, pass beyond, ultimately from Latin ultra- -- and as such, a close cognate of outrage.
---L.
Now largely dead except in the adverbial form à outrance reborrowed from French, used to describe combat to the very end, i.e., to the death. The original usage dates to Middle English, either via Anglo-Norman or direct from Old French (I'm unclear on the timing here) oltrance, from outrer, pass beyond, ultimately from Latin ultra- -- and as such, a close cognate of outrage.
---L.