fouet

English

Noun

fouet (plural fouets)

1. (Scotland) Alternative form of fouat (“houseleek”)

French

Etymology

From Middle French fouet, diminutive in -et of Old French fou (“beech”), from Latin fagus.

Since the morpheme boundary was no longer felt in Middle French, [u.ɛ] was contracted to [wɛ] and this later developed regularly to [wa] (as it did in oi, oe). The contemporary pronunciation was reinforced by the spelling and the desire to distinguish from foi, foie and fois.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fwɛ/, (archaic) /fwa/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

fouet m (plural fouets)

1. whip (tool)
2. (cooking) whisk
3. (zoology) tip

Derived terms

• coup de fouet
• fouetter
• de plein fouet

Descendants

• → Catalan: fuet
  • → English: fuet
  • → Spanish: fuet
• → Italian: fuetto
• → Portuguese: fuê

Further reading

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

Norman

Etymology

From Old French fou (“beech”) +‎ -et.

Noun

fouet m (plural fouets)

1. (Jersey) whip

Derived terms

• donner du fouet (“to lash”)