loutre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French lutre, from Latin lutra. In Old French, there were variants leurre (which is the normal phonetic result) and loirre (from a Vulgar Latin form *lutria, influenced by Ancient Greek ἔνυδρις (énudris); cf. Occitan luria, Catalan llúdria, Spanish lutria, nutria). The standard modern form loutre probably maintained the -t- due to influence from Frankish and Germanic (compare Dutch and English otter, German Otter).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lutʁ/
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Noun

loutre f (plural loutres)

  1. otter
    • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, chapter 1, in Madame Bovary [] [1], first part:
      C’était une de ces coiffures d’ordre composite, où l’on retrouve les éléments du bonnet à poil, du chapska, du chapeau rond, de la casquette de loutre et du bonnet de coton, une de ces pauvres choses, enfin, dont la laideur muette a des profondeurs d’expression comme le visage d’un imbécile.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Romanian: lutră
  • Turkish: lutr

Further reading

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