écrou
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Etymology 1 edit
Masculinized form from Middle French escroue, from Old French escroe, from Latin scrōfa, originally “sow (female pig)”;[1] compare Occitan escrofa (“screw nut”), Sicilian scrufina (“screw nut”). The change in meaning is also found in Spanish puerca, Portuguese porca, both “sow; screw nut”, and is based on the fact that a boar's penis has a screw-like tip, making the sow's vulva equivalent to a screw nut by analogy.
Noun edit
écrou m (plural écrous)
- nut (that fits on a bolt), female screw
Etymology 2 edit
Inherited from Middle French escrou (“scrap, strip of parchment, scroll”), from Old French escroe, from Old Dutch *skrōda (“end, flap”) (compare Middle Dutch scrōde), from Proto-Germanic *skrudaz, derivative of Proto-Germanic *skrudaną (compare Dutch schrooien (“to shred”)). Cognate with English escrow, scroll.
Noun edit
écrou m (plural écrous)
Derived terms edit
References edit
- ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edn., s.v. "screw".
Further reading edit
- “écrou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.