tutoyer

American  

[too-twah-yey, ty-twa-yey] / ˌtu twɑˈjeɪ, tü twaˈjeɪ /

verb (used with object)

tutoyered, tutoyed, tutoyering

1. to address (someone), especially in French, using the familiar forms of the pronoun “you” rather than the more formal forms; address familiarly.

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Etymology

Origin of tutoyer

1690–1700; < French, to address as tu and toi (the familiar singular forms for “you” in French)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tutoyer tutoyering

“I am Dominique. Just call me Dominique. Not Madame—Dominique. I will tutoyer you. You can tutoyer me, too,” she says, indicating that we’re all to use the informal form of address.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 1, 2016

But he was growing warm, and began to tutoyer Hereward.

From Hereward, the Last of the English by Kingsley, Charles

"I should not have recognized her, and I don't dare to tutoyer the young lady!"

From Strong as Death by Maupassant, Guy de

This cafe was a friendly, homely, sociable spot, where it seemed the habit of the master of the establishment to tutoyer his customers, and the practice of the cus- tomers to tutoyer the waiter.

From A Little Tour in France by James, Henry

I can’t tutoyer for the life of me.”

From Molly Brown's College Friends by Speed, Nell

I remember being present when an Englishman and his wife, much accustomed to good French society, but unacquainted with this nuance, were laboriously tutoyering each other.

From Correspondence & Conversations of Alexis de Tocqueville with Nassau William Senior from 1834 to 1859, Volume 2 by Tocqueville, Alexis de