cuckoo
→
cuckold, deceived husband
3 realizations
Related shifts
| ID | Meaning 1 | Direction | Meaning 2 |
| ACCEPTED Realization 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| type | Internal cognates | |
| language | French | |
| lexeme 1 | coucou | |
| lexeme 2 | cocu | |
| meaning 1 | cuckoo | |
| direction | → | |
| meaning 2 | cuckold, deceived husband | |
| reference | CNRTL | |
| comment | ||
| ACCEPTED Realization 2 | ||
|---|---|---|
| type | Derivation | |
| language | Middle English | |
| lexeme 1 | cokkou, cuckow, kukkow, kockow, kokkow, cukkow, cockou, cokkow, kukkowe, cuccu | |
| lexeme 2 | cokewold | |
| meaning 1 | cuckoo | |
| direction | → | |
| meaning 2 | cuckold, deceived husband | And demed hymself, been lik a cokewold (Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Myllers Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales) And deemed himself, [he had] been like a cuckold. |
| reference | MED | |
| comment | ||
| ACCEPTED Realization 3 | ||
|---|---|---|
| type | Derivation | |
| language | Old French | |
| lexeme 1 | cucu, cocu | |
| lexeme 2 | cucuault | |
| meaning 1 | cuckoo | |
| direction | → | |
| meaning 2 | cuckold, deceived husband | |
| reference | <personally collected data> | |
| comment | Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) |
|
From Latin cuculus 'cuckoo', 'a term of reproach; esp. of foolish men and of dilatory husbandmen, who are not through with their pruning until the cuckoo is heard (after the vernal equinox)'