requin

English

Etymology

From French requin (“shark”); see below.

Pronunciation

Noun

requin (plural requins)

  1. (dated) The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).
    • 1893, Rev. H. J. Foster, “Jonah”, in The Thinker, volume 9, page 124:
      The big gullet of the requin shark, for example, could do so. It has been killed with men inside whole.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for requin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

Anagrams

French

Etymology

1539;[1] Normand reflex of Old French reschin (12th c.), deverbal from reschignier (“to grimace while baring teeth”), rekigner (“to make an ugly face”),[2][3] from Frankish *kīnan (“to split open”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ʁə.kɛ̃/
  • audio(file)

Noun

requin m (plural requins)

  1. shark
    Synonym: squale
    • 1968, “Bébé requin”, in 1968, performed by France Gall:
      Je suis un bébé requin / Au ventre blanc, aux dents nacrées / Dans les eaux chaudes, je t'entraînerai
      I'm a baby shark / White-bellied, pearl-toothed / In warm waters I will drag you
  2. (derogatory) a person profiting from others by treachery

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → English: requin
  • Haitian Creole: reken
  • → Romanian: rechin
  • → Polish: rekin

References
  1. Paul Imbs & Bernard Quemada, eds., Trésor de la langue française: Dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siècle (1789-1960), s.v. “requin” (Paris: CNRS/Gallimard, 1971–1994).
  2. Albert Deshayes, Dictionnaire étymologique du breton (Douarnenez: Le Chasse-Marée, 2003), 620.
  3. Alain Rey, ed., Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, 2nd edn. (Paris: Le Robert, 1998), 3:8203–4.

Further reading

Anagrams
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