émeute

• emeute

Borrowed from French.

émeute (plural émeutes)

1. (archaic) A seditious tumult; an outbreak.
   • 1834: George Browning, The Domestic and Financial Condition of Great Britain

     At court, all was uncertainty and gloom ; plots, intrigues, and conspiracies, were the ordinary topics of popular discussion ; and the outburst of some diabolical emeute to subvert the throne, was awaited with anxious apprehension.

   • 1841: Frederic Tolfrey, The Sportsman in France

     Certain rumours of an emeute in Paris had reached the quiet little village of Arques towards the end of July, and on the 28th of the month the report was confirmed by the outbreak of the Revolution.

   • 1879: W. S. Gilbert: The Pirates of Penzance

     When the foeman bares his steel,
     Tarantara! tarantara!
     We uncomfortable feel,
     Tarantara!
     And we find the wisest thing,
     Tarantara! Tarantara!
     Is to slap our chests and sing
     Tarantara!
     For when threatened with emeutes,
     Tarantara! Tarantara!
     And your heart is in your boots,
     Tarantara!
     There is nothing brings it round,
     Like the trumpet's martial sound,
     Tarantara! Tarantara! Tarantara!

From the old past participle of émouvoir (“to move emotionally”), influenced by meute (“pack (of hounds)”).

• IPA^(key): /e.møt/

• Audio

  (file)

émeute f (plural émeutes)

1. riot
2. (figuratively) chaos, disorder

• émeutier

• “émeute”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.