carreau

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French quarel, from Vulgar Latin *quadrellus from Classical Latin quadrus. Compare Italian quadrello, Spanish cuadrillo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ʁo/

• audio:

  (file)

Noun

carreau m (plural carreaux)

1. square (as a geometrical shape)
2. (card games) diamonds (card suit)
3. tile (compare with carrelage, meaning tiles or tiling)
4. windowpane
5. bolt (crossbow projectile)
6. (Haiti) a unit of land, 100 square pas (where a pas is 3.5 French feet or pieds): roughly 1.3 hectares or 3.2 acres
7. (Louisiana) plot, patch (of land, of cloth)

Derived terms

• se tenir à carreau
• sur le carreau

 

Related terms

• carreauté
• carré
• carrer
• équerre
• square

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: каро́ (karó)
• → German: Karo n

  → Macedonian: каро n (karo)

  → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: ка̏ро m

  Latin script: kȁro m

• → Occitan: carrèu
  • → Catalan: carreu
• → Polish: karo n
• → Romanian: carou
• → Vietnamese: ca-rô

Further reading

• “carreau”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Etymology

From Old French quarel, from Vulgar Latin *quadrellus, from Classical Latin quadrus.

Noun

carreau m (plural carreaux)

1. (Jersey, card games) diamond