{"id":24307,"date":"2025-11-21T12:44:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24307"},"modified":"2025-11-21T12:44:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:44:42","slug":"a-complete-canard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24307","title":{"rendered":"A Complete Canard!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the words that came up in the French conversation group last night was <strong>canard<\/strong>, which means duck in French, but is also used in English.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/24787635@N05\/2479782766\/in\/photolist-4M8x2h-8um6CZ-jtsaw-tywZTc-2pC6gqR-2qvidVU-DLDV2s-jtsEi-fiqQdS-2jfQDVu-2q1QgWF-21EsEWz-jtrEc-67afiu-jtrbs-rxG56J-xKE2A-2qusCE1-2jpMkQU-qDRLtR-jMawyN-2kgoYoQ-bCqURn-6q8nMo-2jfTzXm-2piZaGG-6xKkV6-6q4fti-pweXpV-2oHFN3D-6JrdwC-2piXWtH-4wFkmT-n6j1N-4zmAFU-RrGVW-2jtr1Sy-2nvG7Rj-4usW42-2jWqNmq-2qN45Xq-74tjHi-2mcEvcH-2mNvTAe-2rrKc2x-2rBBVoP-2r5ZKVc-2rEUM9L-27nRW7y-2e3TEpZ\" title=\"canard\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2199\/2479782766_403444bee2_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"483\" alt=\"canard\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In French, meanings of <strong>canard<\/strong> [ka.na\u0281] include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A duck, duckling, drake (male duck)<\/li>\n<li>A canard, hoax, fake news, a lie<\/li>\n<li>A newspaper (of little value), a rag (<em>slang<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>A lump of sugar dipped in a liquid, especially coffee or brandy, before being eaten.<\/li>\n<li>A high-pitched, false note produced by a wind instrument, most often a reed instrument [<a href=\"https:\/\/fr.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/canard\">source<\/a>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from Middle French <em>canard<\/em> (duck), from Old French <em>canart, quanart<\/em> (duck), from <em>cane<\/em> (female duck, boat), perhaps from <em>caner<\/em> (to cackle, prattle), or from Frankish <em>*kan\u014d<\/em> (boat, floating vessel), from Proto-Germanic <em>*kan\u00f4<\/em> (vessel, vat, tub, boat), from Proto-Indo-European <em>*gan(d\u02b0)-<\/em> (vessel, tub) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/canard#French\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Some expressions featuring <strong>canards<\/strong> include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>canard bo\u00eeteux<\/strong> = lame duck<\/li>\n<li><strong>vilain petit canard<\/strong> = ugly duckling<\/li>\n<li><strong>ne pas casser trois pattes \u00e0 un canard<\/strong> = not worth writing home about, not all it&#8217;s cracked up to be &#8211; to be very ordinary, to be on the verge of mediocrity<\/li>\n<li><strong>faire le canard<\/strong> = to suck up to; to flatter too much<\/li>\n<li><strong>froid de canard<\/strong> = bitter cold, brass monkeys weather<\/li>\n<li><strong>il y a plusieurs fa\u00e7ons de plumer un canard <\/strong> = there&#8217;s more than one way to skin a cat [a problem generally has more than one solution] [<a href=\"https:\/\/fr.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/canard#D%C3%A9riv%C3%A9s\">source<\/a>].\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ce matin, il a fait <strong>froid de canard<\/strong> ici \u00e0 Bangor avec du givre partout. (This morning it was rather chilly here in Bangor with frost everywhere).<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>can<\/strong> in English, <strong>kanna<\/strong> (jug, pot, can) in Swedish, <strong>kane<\/strong> (swan-shapped vessel) in Norwegian, <strong>Kahn<\/strong> (a small flat-bottomed boat such as a punt, used on inland waters; a ship, especially when old or in need of repair) in German, and <strong>canot<\/strong> (dinghy) in French [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic\/kan%C3%B4\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p>In English, <strong>canard<\/strong> [k\u0259\u02c8n\u0251\u02d0d \/ k\u0259\u02c8n\u0251\u0279d] can mean:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A false or misleading report or story, especially if deliberately so.<\/li>\n<li>A type of aircraft in which the primary horizontal control and stabilization surfaces are in front of the main wing.<\/li>\n<li>Any small winglike structure on a vehicle, usually used for stabilization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Apparently, the meaning of a hoax or false or misleading story comes from the Medieval French expression <em>&#8220;vendre un canard \u00e0 moiti\u00e9&#8221;<\/em>, which means &#8216;to sell half a duck&#8217; or &#8216;to half-sell a duck&#8217;. It perhaps comes from a joke or story [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/canard#English\">source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ling-app.com\/offer-yearly-subscription\/?affiliateId=omniglot\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_ling-app.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"79\" alt=\"Language skills in just 10 minutes a day with Ling\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the words that came up in the French conversation group last night was canard, which means duck in French, but is also used in English. In French, meanings of canard [ka.na\u0281] include: A duck, duckling, drake (male duck) A canard, hoax, fake news, a lie A newspaper (of little value), a rag (slang) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,110,111,10,27,34,44,45],"tags":[523,524,164,158,526,525,138,281,163],"class_list":["post-24307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-frankish","category-french","category-language","category-middle-french","category-old-french","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","tag-canard","tag-duck","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-false-news","tag-hoax","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24307"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24317,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24307\/revisions\/24317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}