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chouette

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Etymology and origin of the French word chouette

chouette1 owl

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Blend
First attested
1050–1100 Rashi's glosses, as çuete
Ultimate origin
Frankish *kawa

Pronunciation

Forms

chouette f (plural chouettes)[1] Old French çuete (late 11th century), suete, chouate (late 13th century) and chüette (about 1370); chouette appears in 1546.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the owl is from Old French çuete + choe (“jackdaw”): it arose from a crossing of an Old French word probably imitating the bird's cry, like Italian civetta, with another bird name, recorded from the late 11th century and mainly Picard.[2][3][4][5] The bird name goes back to Frankish *kawa (“jackdaw”), which the TLFi infers from Middle Dutch couwe, Norwegian Nynorsk kaie and Swedish kaja.[2][3][6] Bloch and Wartburg compare Dutch kauw, and see the imitative nature of the words in the English verb caw.[4] The Grand Robert and Wiktionary simply treat the word as a diminutive of the second one, which the Grand Robert spells choue.[7][1]

Littré lists Walloon chawète and Norman cauvette.[8] Bloch and Wartburg note that the word is now the dominant one in the Gallo-Romance dialects, while the simple form survives in a few northern ones.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form çuete is first found in the French glosses of Rashi (second half of the 11th century), and again in Chrétien de Troyes's Chevalier au lion (about 1175), naming the night bird.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word names nocturnal birds of prey that, unlike the hibou, have no ear tufts.[3][2] Rabelais wrote in 1546 that Panurge's wife would be coincte et jolie comme une belle petite chouette, reflecting the popular view of the owl as a coquettish bird.[2][4][8]

The insult vieille chouette for a nasty old woman (1885) seems to come from la Chouette, a hideous shrew in Eugène Sue's novel Les Mystères de Paris.[3][2] In games, faire la chouette meant to play alone against several opponents, as at backgammon or billiards.[2]

Timeline

  • 2nd half of the 11th century – Çuete and choe in Rashi's glosses.[2]
  • c. 1175 – Çuete in Chrétien de Troyes's Chevalier au lion.[2]
  • Late 13th century – The form chouate.[2]
  • c. 1370 – Chüette in the Lamentations of Matheolus.[2]
  • 1546 – Chouette in Rabelais's Tiers Livre.[2]
  • 1885 – Vieille chouette in Maupassant's Bel-Ami.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An owl, a nocturnal bird of prey without ear tufts, unlike the hibou: chouette effraie, chouette chevêche.[2][1][9]
  2. Vieille chouette: (familiar) a nasty, disagreeable old woman.[2][9]
  3. Yeux de chouette: big round eyes.[2][9]
  4. (games) Faire la chouette: to play alone against several others.[2]

chouette2 great, nice

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1825 Esnault
Ultimate origin
French chouette

Pronunciation

Forms

chouette (plural chouettes)[1]

Etymology

The word for “great, nice” is from French chouette1, probably used figuratively after the behaviour popularly ascribed to the owl, a coquettish bird.[2][4][7] The sources point to Old French choeter (“to play the coquette”), Rabelais's simile of the pretty little owl (1546), an 18th-century phrase meaning “to flirt with someone”, and Italian civetta, both “owl” and “coquette” (15th century).[2][4][7] Rey calls the origin obscure and gives also Guiraud's view that it comes from choueter (“to pet, flatter”), a diminutive of chouer, the old form of choyer;[3] Guiraud held that the coquettish owl rested only on the likeness of sound between the words.[3] Wiktionary sees a confusion between the owl's name and a derivative of that verb.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Esnault dates the popular adjective “good, pleasant” to about 1825; it is printed in 1830 in Arago.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In 1836 Parent-Duchâtelet recorded chouette as a noun for a pretty prostitute.[2] The adjective spread in popular and familiar speech, of people (“decent, likeable”) and of things (“fine, first-rate”), and as an exclamation of pleasure; the adverb chouettement is recorded from 1843.[2][10]

Timeline

  • c. 1825 – First record of the popular adjective, according to Esnault.[2]
  • 1830 – Chouette in Arago.[2][7][4]
  • 1836 – Noun for a pretty prostitute, in Parent-Duchâtelet.[2]
  • 1843 – The adverb chouettement.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (familiar) Of a person, nice, decent, likeable: un chouette voisin.[10][2][11]
  2. (familiar) Of a thing, fine, pretty, great: une chouette veste, c'est chouette.[10][11][1]

Interjection

  1. (familiar) An exclamation of pleasure: Chouette, il fait beau ![10][11][1]

Word family

  • chouettement
  • choucas
  • chat-huant
  • chevêche
  • chouan
  • chauve-souris

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 550a
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 304b
  7. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Chouette.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/chouette. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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