tutoyer

American  

[too-twah-yey, ty-twa-yey] / ˌtu twɑˈyeɪ, tü twaˈyeɪ /

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

“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

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 was half inclined to array myself in drab, and tutoyer the first of the body I chanced to encounter in my walks abroad.

From Mystic London: or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis by Davies, Charles Maurice

I can’t tutoyer for the life of me.”

From Molly Brown's College Friends by Speed, Nell

C'est mon sentiment que nos relations ne peuvent pas se bien continuer si vous ne me donnez pas la permission de vous tutoyer.

From Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Stevenson, Robert Louis