renard

Etymology

The name of the fox in the medieval Roman de Renart. A Germanic personal name, from Proto-Germanic *Raginaharduz, from *raginą (“counsel”) + *harduz (“hard, strong”).

Replaced goupil (from Latin vulpecula) by euphemism – mentioning the fox by name was considered bad luck, so Renart replaced it. Compare Russian медведь (medvéd’, “bear”), literally “honey-eater”, and possibly English bear (one theory holding that its Proto-Indo-European antecedent means “brown”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁə.naʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• (Louisiana) IPA^(key): [(ə)ɾ(ə)na(ɾ)]

Noun

renard m (plural renards, feminine renarde, diminutive renardeau)

1. fox (small carnivore)
2. (figuratively) crafty, purposeful and cunning character
3. (slang) flatulence
4. (nautical) ancient navigation tool: circular, wooden or copper plate, which enables the helmsman to keep a record of wind conditions by inserting pegs at specific positions
5. hardly detectable cracks or holes causing a water tank or pond to empty itself

See also

• goupil (“fox”) (older term, now obsolete)
• Goupil (French surname, see Saint René Goupil)
• Renart le goupil (= German: Reineke Fuchs; English: Reynard the Fox)

Further reading

• “renard” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• rendra