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fou

Etymology and origin of the French word fou

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1100, Chanson de Roland
Inherited from
Latin follis via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (follis)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin follis
French fou

Pronunciation

Forms

fou (masculine singular before vowel fol, feminine folle, masculine plural fous or (obsolete) foux, feminine plural folles)[1] Old French fol, fou from the late 12th century, fol kept before a vowel (un fol espoir) and in set phrases; feminine folle.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French fol, inherited from Latin follis (“bellows; inflated bag; ball”),[4][3][5][6] which in Late Latin had come to mean “foolish, idiot”.[4][3] The fool was likened in jest to a ball blown up with air, going this way and that; the change of sense was complete by the 6th century.[5][2] Rey compares French ballot and refers “follis” to an imitative Indo-European root “*bhol-” of blowing and swelling.[3] The old sense “bellows” lasted in French until the 16th century.[5][3]

Cognate with Italian folle, Old Occitan fol and Catalan foll.[7][5] English fool and English folly come from Old French (13th century).[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) uses fol as noun and adjective for an unreasonable person;[4][2] the Voyage of Saint Brendan (early 12th century) has fole pöur “mad fear”, already of a thing.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Throughout its history the word has expressed what is outside the norms of reason.[3] It meant “wanton” (about 1200), whence folle femme “prostitute” (13th century) and femme folle de son corps (19th century);[3] maison de fous (1890) replaced hôpital de fous (Pascal), and in the 20th century fou left the language of psychiatry.[3][2] Fou de “mad with, mad about” dates from the 17th century (fou d'amour, Molière, 1669),[3] plus on est de fous, plus on rit from the sense “merry, playful” (1690), and the intensive sense “huge, extraordinary” from prix fou (1793), un monde fou (1813) and un succès fou (1818).[3][8] Of moving things it means “erratic, free-running” (roue folle, folle avoine, 1547).[3]

The court jester, le fol du duc de Florence, appears in Montaigne (1580).[4] In chess fou (Jean de Meun's fols, 1275–1280, fou in Régnier, 1613) replaced Old French alfin, aufin, which came, probably through Spanish alfil, from Arabic الفيل (al-fīl, “the elephant”), the piece being first shaped as an elephant;[4][5] the TLFi suggests a comparison of the piece beside the king with the jester at court,[4] and Bloch and Wartburg find it hard to see fou as an alteration of aufin.[5] The seabird fou (fols before 1627) was named for letting itself be caught by hand.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Fol in the Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • Early 12th century – Fole pöur in Saint Brendan.[4]
  • 13th century – Folle femme.[3]
  • 1275–1280 – The chessman, in Jean de Meun.[4]
  • 1547 – Folle avoine.[3]
  • 1580 – A court jester, in Montaigne.[4]
  • 1669 – Fou d'amour in Molière.[3]
  • 1690 – Fou à lier in Furetière.[2]
  • 1793 – Prix fou.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Mad, insane, crazy: devenir fou, fou à lier: raving mad.[7][1]
  2. Foolish, senseless: une idée folle.[7][2]
  3. Fou de: beside oneself with; crazy about: fou de joie, fou de musique.[3][7]
  4. Huge, tremendous: un succès fou, un monde fou, un temps fou.[3][7]
  5. Erratic, uncontrolled: roue folle, herbes folles.[3][7]

Noun

  1. A madman, lunatic; a fool: maison de fous.[7][1]
  2. A jester: le fou du roi.[1][3]
  3. (chess) A bishop.[9][1]
  4. A gannet, booby: fou de Bassan.[9][8]
  5. (colloquial) A fan, enthusiast.[1]

Word family

  • folâtre
  • folichon
  • folie
  • follet
  • affoler
  • fol
  • folle
  • foufou

Usage notes

Another fou (13th century, Renart), meaning “beech”, from Latin fāgus, survives only in dialects such as Burgundy, Normandy and Berry fau.[10][11][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 688b
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Fou.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/fou. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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