English

Noun

canard ‎(plural canards)

1. A false or misleading report or story, especially if deliberately so.
   • 2005, The New Yorker, 29 August, page 78.

     It’s a cinch, now that Spurling has cleared away a century’s worth of misapprehensions and canards.

   • 2014 August 20, “Why Jews are worried [print version: International New York Times, 22 August 2014, p. 8]”, in The New York Times:

     [W]hen a Hamas spokesman recently stood by his statement that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish children for their matzos – one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards around – European elites were largely silent.

2. (aeronautics) A type of aircraft in which the primary horizontal control and stabilization surfaces are in front of the main wing.
3. (transport, engineering) Any small winglike structure on a vehicle, usually used for stabilization.

Synonyms

• (false or misleading report or story): hoax

Translations

French

Etymology

From Middle French canard, from Old French quanart ‎(“duck”), from cane ‎(“duck”) + -ard. Perhaps from the same onomatopeotic root as caner ‎(“cackle, prattle”).

Alternatively from Middle French canard ‎(“duck, male duck”), from cane ‎(“duck, female duck”, literally “floater, little boat”), from Old French cane ‎(“boat, ship", also "waterbird”), from Middle Low German kane ‎(“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *kanô ‎(“boat, vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *gan-, *gandʰ- ‎(“vessel, tub”). Cognate with Norwegian kane ‎(“swan-shaped vessel”), Dutch kaan ‎(“boat”), German Kahn ‎(“boat”), Old Norse kæna ‎(“little boat”), and possibly Old Norse knǫrr ‎(“ship”) (whence also Late Latin canardus ‎(“ship”), from Germanic; and Old English cnearr ‎(“merchant ship”)). Related to French canot ‎(“little boat”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.naʁ/
• Rhymes: -aʁ
• Homophone: canards

Noun

canard m ‎(plural canards, feminine cane)

1. duck (of either sex)
   • Erik Verdonck, Foie gras & canard: Les meilleures recettes d'Upignac, 2005, 12.

     Aujourd'hui, le réseau de restaurants franchisés permet de faire connaître d'autres produits à base de canard au grand public et d'inspirer les gourmets et les cuisiniers amateurs.

   • Hans Christian Andersen, Le vilain petit canard: Contes et Histoires pour enfants, Primento, 2014.

     Le pauvre canard en eut assez de toutes ces railleries et il décida de s'en aller.

2. drake (male duck)
   • "Économie usuelle", in M. Matthieu Bonafous, De la culture des murier et de l'éducation des vers a soie, 1836, 756.

     Il est facile de distinguer le canard commun de la cane. Le mâle est plus gros que la femelle; il a aussi la voix plus forte et le plumage plus éclatant; mais le signe le plus saillant, c'est un assemblage de plusiers plumes retroussées que le mâle portes sur le croupion, à l'origine de la queue. Le canard et la cane sont propres à l'accouplement jusqu'à trois ou quatre ans; il faut les remplacer à cet âge par des sujest plus jeunes. Un canard suffit pour dix ou douze canes.

3. (slang, familiar) newspaper

   Le canard enchaîné

   • Jérémy Bouquin, Entrailles, 2015, 6.

     Duval ne répond pas, il a lu le canard, cette affaire de cambriole.

   • Gérard Valbert, La saison des armours, 2000, 18.

     Usant de gros titres, le canard met en garde la population.

4. (slang, familiar) a man who complies with every desire of his partner in order to avoid conflict
5. (slang, familiar) a man who tries to attract women by offering them gifts

Derived terms

Related terms

Anagrams

• cadran

Italian

Noun

canard m ‎(invariable)

1. canard, hoax

Portuguese

Noun

canard m (plural canards)

1. (aeronautics) canard (type of aircraft)
2. (transport, engineering) canard (winglike structure on a vehicle)