canard

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kəˈnɑːd/ (UK); /kəˈnɑɹd/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French canard (“duck; hoax”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Old French quanart (“duck, drake”),^[2][3][4][6] from caner “to cackle”, of imitative origin.^[2][3][6] The sense of a false story comes from the French phrase vendre un canard à moitié “to half-sell a duck”, that is, to cheat.^[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An absurd or fabricated story meant to impose on people's credulity (1851;^[4][5] before 1850 in Barnhart;^[3] 1864 in the OED).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Half-selling a duck meant not selling it at all, so the phrase came to mean deceiving someone,^[3] and the duck itself became a word for a hoax.^[4][3] In the 20th century the word was applied to aircraft with small stabilizing surfaces in front of the main wing (1916),^[7][2] and to those surfaces themselves.^[2][5]

Timeline

• late 16th century – the French phrase vendre un canard à moitié.^[3]
• 1843 – a possible earlier date for the English word.^[4]
• 1851 – a fabricated story.^[4][5]
• 1902 – a deep blue colour, like that on a duck's wing.^[7]
• 1916 – a control surface in front of an aircraft's main wing.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A false or unfounded story or rumor, especially one spread deliberately.
2. An aircraft whose horizontal stabilizer is in front of the main wing.
3. A small wing-like surface in front of the main wing of an aircraft.
4. A duck used for food.

Related words

• hoax
• mallard

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press