chose

See also: Chose, CHOSE, and chôse

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: chōz, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃəʊz/
• (US) enPR: chōz, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃoʊz/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊz

Verb

chose

1. simple past of choose
2. (colloquial, nonstandard) past participle of choose
   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 10, lines 165-166:

     From what conſummate vertue I have choſe / This perfect Man, by merit call'd my Son,

   • 1896, Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs‎^[1], Houghton Mifflin, page 66:

     I expect you might have chose a somewhat larger fish, but I'll try an' make it do.

   • 2010, Andrew Noble Koss, World War I and the Remaking of Jewish Vilna‎^[2], Stanford University Press, page x:

     Since this work is about Vilna's Jewish community, I have chose the familiar spelling Vilna, which closely approximates Jews' preferred name for their city.

3. simple past of chuse

Etymology 2

From Middle French chose, from Latin causa (“cause, reason”). Doublet of cause.

Noun

chose (plural choses)

1. (law) A thing; personal property.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• chose in action
• chose in possession
• chose local
• chose transitory

Anagrams

• Choes, HCEOs, So-ch'e, choes, echos, oches

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French chose, from Latin causa. Compare Italian cosa, Portuguese coisa, Spanish cosa among many others. Compare cause, a borrowed doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃoz/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /ʃoʊ̯z/
• Rhymes: -oz

Noun

chose f (plural choses)

1. thing

   Synonym: truc

   • 1580, Michel de Montaigne, De la cruauté: Essais:

     Les Agrigentins avaient en usage commun d’enterrer sérieusement les bêtes qu’ils avaient eu chères, comme les chevaux de quelque rare mérite, les chiens et les oiseaux utiles, ou même qui avaient servi de passe-temps à leurs enfants : et la magnificence qui leur était ordinaire en toutes autres choses paraissait aussi singulièrement à la somptuosité et nombre de monuments élevés à cette fin, qui ont duré en parade plusieurs siècles depuis.

     The Agrigentines had a common use solemnly to inter the beasts they had a kindness for, as horses of some rare quality, dogs, and useful birds, and even those that had only been kept to divert their children; and the magnificence that was ordinary with them in all other things, also particularly appeared in the sumptuosity and numbers of monuments erected to this end, and which remained in their beauty several ages after.

Derived terms

• à peu de choses près
• autre chose
• avant toutes choses
• chose du passé
• chose jugée
• chose promise, chose due
• chosisme
• chosiste
• c’est la moindre des choses
• de deux choses l’une
• état de choses
• être porté sur la chose
• faire la part des choses
• par la force des choses
• passer aux choses sérieuses
• plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
• prendre les choses comme elles viennent
• quelque chose
• tout chose
• toutes choses égales par ailleurs
• toutes les bonnes choses ont une fin
• voir le bon côté des choses
• voir les choses en grand

 

Descendants

• → German: Chose

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• échos

Middle English

Noun

chose

1. Alternative form of chois

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French chose, cose.

Noun

chose f (plural choses)

1. thing

Descendants

• French: chose

Norman

Alternative forms

• (Saint Ouen) chôthe

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey):

  (file)

Adjective

chose m or f

1. (Jersey) self-conscious

Old French

Alternative forms

• cosa (very early Old French)
• cose (chiefly Old Northern French)

Etymology

From earlier cose, cosa, inherited from Latin causa. Compare cause.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃo.zə/

Noun

chose oblique singular, f (oblique plural choses, nominative singular chose, nominative plural choses)

1. thing (miscellaneous object or concept)
   • 1260–1267, Brunetto Latini, “Cist premiers livres parole de la naissance de toutes choses [This first book talks about the birth of all things]” (chapter 1), Livre I - Premiere partie, in Livres dou Tresor [Book of Treasures]; republished as Polycarpe Chabaille, compiler, Li livres dou tresor par Brunetto Latini‎^[3], Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1863, page 1:

     si come li sires qui vuet en petit leu amasser choses de grandisme vaillance […] por acroistre son pooir […] i met il les plus chieres choses et les plus precieux joiaus que il puet, selonc sa bone entencion, tout autressi est li cors de cest livre compilez de sapience

     Just like the lord, who wishes to accumulate very valuable things in a tiny place […] in order to increase his power, […] puts there—according to his good intention—the dearest things and the most precious jewels he can, so the body of this book is filled with knowledge

Descendants

• Middle French: chose
  • French: chose
• Walloon: tchôze