tutoyer

tutoyer means to address (someone) in French using the familiar second-person pronoun tu; to thou.

Why “tutoyer” is a great word

To address someone in French using the familiar second-person singular pronoun *tu* rather than the formal *vous*. Borrowed from French *tutoyer*, literally 'to address with the pronoun *tu*', from *tu* (the familiar 'you') + the suffix *-oyer* (forming verbs), first attested in English in the late 17th century. Unlike *vouvoyer*, which enforces a strict protocol of distance, or the archaic English 'to thou', which conjures a specific historical intimacy now lost, *tutoyer* is a deliberate social contract, a linguistic handshake that dissolves distance. It is the professor inviting a student to drop the honorific, the stranger at a Parisian bar deciding you are no longer *vous*, or the moment a shared secret melts a professional demeanor into a conspiratorial smile—the small revolution of two people agreeing to be smaller together.

Etymology

Borrowed from French tutoyer.

verb

To address (someone) in French using the familiar second-person pronoun tu; to thou.e.g.“As I had begged Goethe to tutoyer me, he sent me a message to say, I must really remain more than the two days I had named, otherwise he should never get into the way of doing so.” — 1862, The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal, volume 115, page 132:

Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Words closest in meaning

By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.

tutoy 81% match — To address by the informal French pronoun tu (“you”). vs tutoyer →
vouvoy 80% match — To address (someone) in French using the formal second-person pronoun vous. vs tutoyer →
you 62% match — The people spoken, or written to, as an object. vs tutoyer →
cous 48% match — cousin (usually as a term of address, but not necessarily towards one's cousin) vs tutoyer →
cousin 48% match — Chiefly with a qualifying word: Any relation (especially a distant one) who is not a direct ancestor or descendant but part of a person's extended family; a kinsman or kinswoman. vs tutoyer →
tutor 47% match — One who teaches another (usually called a student, learner, or tutee) in a one-on-one or small-group interaction. vs tutoyer →
tutee 46% match — A student of a tutor. vs tutoyer →
parleyvoo 46% match — The French language, especially as understood by an English person. vs tutoyer →