coucou

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ku.ku/^[1]

Forms

coucou m (plural coucous)^[1] Cucu (late 11th century), coquu (1557), couquou (1538), cocou (1667), coucou^[2][3][4]; cocu (12th–17th centuries).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cucu, inherited from Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”), an expressive word imitating the bird's call, remade under the influence of that call:^{[2][3][4][5][1]} the second “k” was restored and the two vowels assimilated, giving “cocu” and then “coucou”.^[2][3][4] The Grand Robert and Littré simply call it an onomatopoeia.^[6][7]

Similar imitative names are Ancient Greek κόκκυξ (kókkux) (the source of coccyx), Old Church Slavonic “kukavica” and Old Irish cuach.^[3] Latin “cucūlus” survives in Occitan cogul and Tuscan Italian cuculo.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rashi's glosses (late 11th century) have cucu for the bird, and Marie de France's Fables (about 1180) speak of people who did not know what bird made the coucou call.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Latin cucūlus was already an insult for an adulterous lover, after the bird's habit of laying in other nests; that sense passed to cocu “cuckold”, while coucou kept the bird.^[3][4] Plants that flower when the cuckoo starts to call took its name: the cowslip (coquu, 1557) and the wild daffodil (1845).^[2][3]

The cuckoo clock is a coucou from 1832–1835.^[2][5] About 1800 a coucou was a small public coach serving the outskirts of Paris, and also from 1914 soldiers' slang used it for an old aeroplane, then a small train.^[2][3][5] As an interjection, coucou was the cry of children playing hide-and-seek (1660), a call to show one is there (1887), and now a familiar “hello!”.^[2][1][9]

Timeline

• late 11th century – Cucu (Rashi).^[2][5]
• 1538 – Couquou (Estienne).^[2][4]
• 1557 – Coquu, the cowslip.^[2][3]
• 1660 – Faire coucou, at hide-and-seek.^[2]
• c. 1800 – A small public coach.^[2][3]
• 1832 – A cuckoo clock (George Sand).^[2]
• 1914 – An aeroplane, in soldiers' slang.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cuckoo.^[10][1]
2. A cuckoo clock.^[10][1]
3. The cowslip; the wild daffodil.^[1][2]
4. (familiar) An old aeroplane or vehicle; a rattletrap.^[1][5]

Interjection

1. Hello!; peekaboo!^[9][1]

Related words

• cocu
• Latin cucūlus
• English cuckoo

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 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 h i j 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. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert