caribou

Forms

caribou m (plural caribous)^[1] The plural was also written cariboux until the Académie dropped that spelling in 1878.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Mi'kmaq qalipu (“caribou”), a word of the Mi'kmaq language.^[1][3][4] The TLFi and Rey describe the source more cautiously as a word of Northern Algonquian whose origin is Mi'kmaq kálibu or xalibú;^[5][2] Bloch and Wartburg simply call it Algonquian, comparing the Mi'kmaq word.^[6][7] The Mi'kmaq word was recorded at the end of the 19th century as kăleboo, and linked by its recorder with kâleboode (“shovel”); the Mi'kmaq of Restigouche still say galipu for the animal and galiputi for a shovel.^[3][4] It is therefore usually explained as “the shoveller” or “the scratcher”, because the animal digs through the snow with its hooves to reach the lichen it feeds on.^[3][4][8] Wiktionary traces the Mi'kmaq word to Proto-Algonquian *maka·lipowa.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1606, in the plural caribous, in the writings of Lescarbot, who stayed in Canada in 1606–1607; the TLFi dates the printed text, Les Muses de la Nouvelle-France, to 1609.^[3][2][5][9] It named the Canadian reindeer.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In the French of France the word is known only for the American deer, the European animal being called renne; in Canadian French it is far more common and was used in many contexts.^[2] Dictionaries record it from the Dictionnaire de Trévoux of 1721.^[3] In Quebec it also came to mean caribou meat, the animal's fur or leather, and, on the Île d'Orléans, a laced moccasin of caribou leather.^[2][4]

From 1906 Quebec French uses caribou for a mixture of red wine and spirits drunk at festivities, a sense unknown in Europe.^[2][4] The origin of this sense is obscure: a widespread story, perhaps a legend, says that the coureurs de bois drank caribou blood, as the Native peoples did, adding alcohol to it, and that red wine later took the place of the blood.^[4][2]

The word passed from Canadian French into English in the 17th century, with spellings such as caribo and carriboo before caribou settled.^[3] Etymonline dates the English word to the 1660s.^[10]

Timeline

• 1606 – First record, in the plural caribous, by Lescarbot.^[3][2]
• 1609 – Lescarbot's Muses de la Nouvelle-France is printed.^[5]
• 1660s – English caribou is first recorded.^[10]
• 1721 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux enters the word.^[3]
• 1866 – Mousse de cariboux, the lichen the animal eats, appears in Louis Babel's journal.^[3]
• 1878 – The Académie drops the plural spelling cariboux.^[2][3]
• 1906 – First record of the sense “mixture of red wine and spirits” in Quebec.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The caribou, the North American reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).^[8][11][4]
2. (Quebec) Caribou meat.^[4][2]
3. (Quebec, dated) Caribou fur, hide or leather.^[4][2]
4. (Quebec, regional) A moccasin of caribou leather, laced at the front.^[4]
5. (Quebec) A traditional drink of red wine mixed with spirits, drunk especially at festivals such as the carnival.^[4][11][12]

Related words

• renne
• English caribou

Usage notes

Since Littré some dictionaries, the TLFi among them, give caribou the sense “moss”; the DHFQ considers this a misreading of a passage of Littré's supplement, since only the phrase mousse caribou is found.^[3][5] In Canada the lichen is called mousse à caribou or mousse de caribou, after North American English caribou moss.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Poirier, Claude, et al. (2024), Dictionnaire historique du français québécois, 2nd ed., Trésor de la langue française au Québec, Université Laval, dhfq.org
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone (BDLP), Trésor de la langue française au Québec / Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, bdlp.org
5. ^ a b c d e Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 20, 60b
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)