oiseau

French

Etymology

c. 1100 from Middle French oyseau, from Old French oisel, from Late Latin aucellus, contraction of Vulgar Latin *avicellus, diminutive of Latin avis, from Proto-Italic *awis, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwis. Compare Italian uccello, Occitan aucèl, Catalan ocell/aucell, Walloon oujhea, Gallo ouézai, Norman ouaîsé, Franco-Provençal usél, Friulian uciel, Sicilian aceddu, Neapolitan auciello.

Compare also with oie (“goose”), itself derived from avis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wa.zo/

• audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): [zwɒzo], [zozo]

Noun

oiseau m (plural oiseaux)

1. bird

Derived terms

• à l’oiseau royal
• oiseau de paradis
• oiseau de passage
• oiseau Roc
• oiseau sans tête
• oiseau-chameau
• oiseau-chat
• oiseau-lyre
• oiseau-moqueur
• oiseau-mouche
• oiseau-tempête
• oiseau-trompette
• oiseleur
• oisellerie
• oisillon
• pied-d’oiseau

 

Descendants

• Antillean Creole: zwazo
• Haitian Creole: zwazo
• Louisiana Creole: zozo, zwazo
• Mauritian Creole: zwazo
• Seychellois Creole: zwazo

Further reading

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