From this came ‘distresse’, meaning ‘cause of fear or anxiety, danger’.Įnglish used the word ‘hobby’ in the same way, until it became ‘hobby-horse’ in the 16th century, which means ‘a kind of petticoat horse used in comic or burlesque performances’. This word itself comes from Old French, which is the origin of the French 'distresse’, which came from ‘détresse’, meaning ‘tension, discomfort, constraint, hindrance’. Today’s use of the word comes from the English word ‘stress’ (meaning ‘force, constraint, effort, tension’), the Trésor de la langue française states that it first came from the Anglo-Norman 'destre(s)ce, destresse'. It is also close to the word ‘ménagère’, which originated from the Old French ‘maynagier’, meaning ‘a ‘person of small status’ or ‘day labourer’. It probably originally came from the Italian ‘maneggiare’, and the Old French ‘mesnager’, and ‘ménager’, meaning ‘household’. This term has been used in both languages across the centuries. The French used it at the beginning of the 19th century, to mean ‘annual statement of public revenue and expenditure’. Began to be used in English from the 12th century, when it meant ‘king's purse, royal treasure’.
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