Chaucer

English

19th-century portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer

Etymology

From Middle English Chaucer, from Old French chaucier (“hose-maker, hosier”), from chauces (“clothing for the legs, breeches, pantaloons, hose”). Compare the modern loanword chausse.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɔːsə/, enPR: chôʹsər

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɔsɚ/, enPR: chôʹsər
  • (cot–caught merger, father-bother merger) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɑsɚ/, enPR: chŏsʹər
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃoːsɘ/, enPR: chôʹsər
• Rhymes: -ɔːsə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: Chau‧cer

Proper noun

Chaucer

1. A rare medieval English surname from Old French.
2. Geoffrey Chaucer, a 14th-century English poet and author, best remembered for The Canterbury Tales; (by extension) his works.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 190:

     After all, the English hostel owes much of its charms to Chaucer; our associations are of his haunting pictures—his delicate Lady Prioress, his comely young squire, with their pleasant interchange of tale and legend, rise upon the mind's eye in all the fascination of his vivid delineations.

Derived terms

• Chauceresque
• Chaucerian
• Chauceriana
• Chaucerianism
• Chaucerism

 

Translations

14th-century English poet

• Armenian: Չոսեր (Čʿoser)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喬叟／乔叟 (Qiáosǒu)

• Japanese: チョーサー (Chōsā)
• Middle English: Chaucer, Chauser, Chawcer, Chaucere
• Russian: Чо́сер m (Čóser)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• Chaucere, Chauser, Chawcer

Etymology

from Old French chaucier (“hose-maker, hosier”), from chauces (“clothing for the legs, breeches, pantaloons, hose”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃau̯ˈseːr/, /ˈt͡ʃau̯sər/

Proper noun

Chaucer

1. a medieval English surname from Old French
2. (rare) Geoffrey Chaucer (14th-century English poet)

Descendants

• English: Chaucer
  • → Armenian: Չոսեր (Čʿoser)
  • → Japanese: チョーサー (Chōsā)
  • → Mandarin: 喬叟／乔叟 (Qiáosǒu)
  • → Russian: Чо́сер (Čóser)
• Scots: Chaucer

References

• “chaucēr, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-12.