homard

See also: Homard

French

FWOTD – 26 October 2025

Un homard européen — A European lobster (Homarus gammarus)

Etymology

From Middle French homard, hommars, houmar (all 16th c.), probably via Middle Low German hummer from Old Norse humarr (“lobster”), from Proto-Germanic *humaraz. A direct borrowing from Scandinavian is less likely regarding the late attestation. Dutch hommer dates from the 19th century and cannot have been the source. Cognate with German Hummer, Middle English hemroll, all “lobster”.

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ɔ.maʁ/, /o.maʁ/

  • Audio; “un homard”:

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  • Audio (France):

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  • Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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  • Audio (France (Saint-Maurice-de-Beynost)):

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  • Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• (Louisiana) IPA^(key): /hɔ̃mar/, /ɔ̃mar/

Noun

homard m (plural homards)

1. lobster (a crustacean of the Nephropidae, or Homaridae, family)
   • 1758, Histoire Naturelle des Insectes, traduite du Biblia Naturae de Jean Swammerdam, Collection Académique, composée des mémoires, actes ou journaux […] , volume 5 of the series (2 of the subseries), Article III, page 447:

     […] dans les écrevisses & dans les homards, les dents ne sont placées que dans la cavité même de l'estomac […]

     […] in crayfish and lobsters, the teeth are located only inside the stomach cavity […]

   • 2010, Valdman, et al., Dictionary of Louisiana French as Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities, page 201:

     Les homards et les Cadiens aviont resté ensemb’ en paix des siec’ de temps jusqu’à la déportation.

     Lobsters and Cajuns had lived together in peace for centuries until the deportation.

   Synonym: lobster m (Louisiana)

Derived terms

• homard à l'américaine
• homard américain
• homard breton
• homard canadien
• homard européen

Descendants

Descendants

• Haitian Creole: oma
• Mauritian Creole: omar
• Seychellois Creole: omar
• → Belarusian: ама́р (amár)
• → Bulgarian: ома́р (omár)
• → Czech: humr
• → Estonian: homaar
• → Hawaiian: ʻōmā
• → Hungarian: homár
• → Polish: homar
• → Romanian: homar
• → Russian: ома́р (omár)
  • → Armenian: օմար (ōmar)
  • → Azerbaijani: omar
  • → Esperanto: omaro
  • → Kazakh: омар (omar)
  • → Latvian: omārs
  • → Lithuanian: omaras
  • → Turkmen: omar
  • → Uzbek: omar
• → Slovak: homár
• → Ukrainian: ома́р (omár)

See also

• écrevisse (“crayfish”)
• langoustine (“Norway lobster”)

Further reading

• “homard”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities (2009; →ISBN; →ISBN)

Middle English

Adverb

homard

1. alternative form of homward