tutoy

Etymology

From French tutoyer.

tutoy means To address by the informal French pronoun tu (“you”). Lexicurio rates it Distinctive — a strength score of 59 out of 100.

Why this word is great

TUTOY — [Verb] To address someone using the informal French pronoun tu. From French tutoyer, from tu (the informal second-person singular pronoun) + toi (the disjunctive form of 'you') + the verbal suffix -oyer. Unlike vouvoyer (which erects a barrier of respect or social distance) or the generic “address” (which is linguistically blind to such gradations), to tutoy is to extend a passkey to intimacy. It is the deliberate, faintly audible click of a garden gate being unlatched, the offering of a chipped mug of coffee instead of a porcelain cup, or the sudden, electric slip in a moment of passion—a minor sacrament of human closeness that maps the fragile geography of trust.

verb

To address by the informal French pronoun tu (“you”).