fou
English
Etymology
From Scots fou. Compare full, a doublet.
Adjective
fou (comparative more fou, superlative most fou)
- (Scotland) Drunk.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk
See also
- Ch'ü-fou
- succès fou
Anagrams
- UFO, ufo
Catalan
Etymology 1
From Latin faux, faucem.
Noun
fou m (plural fous)
- (archaic) A narrow cove.
- A narrow passage, a ravine.
- Synonym: barranc
Verb
fou
- third-person singular preterite indicative form of ser
References
- “fou” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “fou”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
- “fou” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “fou” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fu/
audio (file) - Homophones: fous, fout, foux
Etymology 1
From Middle French fol, from Old French fol, from Latin follis, follem. Cognate with English fool.
Adjective
fou (masculine singular before vowel fol, feminine folle, masculine plural fous, feminine plural folles)
- mad, crazy
Derived terms
- faire que fou
- fin de semaine folle
- fou à lier
- fou comme un balai
- fou de joie
- fou de la gâchette
- fou de rage
- fou du roi
- fou du volant
- fou furieux
- fou rire
- maladie de la vache folle
- mettre un temps fou
- plus on est de fous, plus on rit
- savant fou
- souvent femme varie, bien fol est qui s'y fie
- vendredi fou
Noun
fou m (plural fous, feminine folle)
- madman
- (court entertainer) jester
Derived terms
- début du fou
- fou de Bassan
- fou de la gâchette
- s'amuser comme un petit fou
Related terms
- folie
- folle
Descendants
- Mauritian Creole: fol
Etymology 2
From Spanish alfil, from Arabic اَلْفِيل (al-fīl, “elephant; bishop (chess piece)”), influenced by Etymology 1.
Noun
fou m (plural fous)
- (chess) bishop
- booby (bird)
See also
| Chess pieces in French · pièces d'échecs (layout · text) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| roi | dame | tour | fou | cavalier | pion |
Further reading
- “fou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- ouf
Louisiana Creole French
Etymology
From French fou (“mad, crazy”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fu/
Adjective
fou m (feminine fòl)
- mad, crazy.
See also
- pa tou la
Luxembourgish
Verb
fou
- second-person singular imperative of fouen
Mandarin
Romanization
fou
- Nonstandard spelling of fóu.
- Nonstandard spelling of fǒu.
Usage notes
- English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
Mauritian Creole
Etymology
From French fou.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fu/
Noun
fou (feminine fol)
- (masculine) mad, crazy person
Adjective
fou (feminine fol)
- (masculine) mad, crazy, insane
- Synonym: pagla
Middle English
Alternative forms
- fawe, fay, fogh, fow, fowe, vouh
- fah, fau, foaȝe, foȝ, foh, vaȝe (early)
Etymology
Inherited from Old English fāh, from Proto-West Germanic *faih, from Proto-Germanic *faihaz.
Forms without final /x/ are a result of levelling from Old English inflected forms (e.g. masculine weak nominative singular fāga).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fɔu̯/, /fɔu̯x/
- Rhymes: -ɔu̯
Adjective
fou
- multicoloured, stippled
Descendants
- Scots: faw
References
- “fou, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-27.
Noun
fou (plural fous)
- A kind of multicoloured fur.
References
- “fou, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-27.
Norman
Alternative forms
- four (Guernsey)
Etymology
From Old French forn, from Latin furnus.
Noun
fou m (plural fous)
- (Jersey) oven
Old French
Alternative forms
- fau
Etymology
From Latin fagus.
Noun
fou m (oblique plural fous, nominative singular fous, nominative plural fou)
- beech (tree)
Descendants
- ⇒ French: fouet
Romanian
Interjection
fou
- Obsolete form of fă.
References
- fou in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
Samoan
Etymology
From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(ma-)baqəʀu, from Proto-Austronesian *(ma-)baqəʀuh.
Adjective
fou
- new (recently made or created)
Scots
Etymology 1
From Old English full, from Proto-West Germanic *full, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós.
Adjective
fou (comparative mair fou, superlative maist fou)
- full
- well-fed, full of food or drink, sated, replete
- drunk, intoxicated
- 1789, Robert Burns, Willie Brew'd A Peck O' Maut:
- We are na fou, we're nae that fou, / But just a drappie in our ee;
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
-
Adverb
fou (comparative mair fou, superlative maist fou)
- fully, very, quite, rather, too
Noun
fou
- saxifrage
Noun
fou (plural fous)
- bushel
West Makian
Etymology 1
Possibly cognate to Ternate horu (“to paddle”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɸo.u/
Verb
fou
- (intransitive) to paddle
Conjugation
| Conjugation of fou (action verb) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | |||
| inclusive | exclusive | |||
| 1st person | tofou | mofou | afou | |
| 2nd person | nofou | fofou | ||
| 3rd person | inanimate | ifou | dofou | |
| animate | ||||
| imperative | nofou, fou | fofou, fou | ||
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɸo.u/
Noun
fou
- betel leaf
References
- James Collins (1982) Further Notes Towards a West Makian Vocabulary, Pacific linguistics