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canards

 - 3 dictionary results

ca⋅nard

  [kuh-nahrd; Fr. ka-nar]
Use canards in a Sentence
–noun, plural -nards  [-nahrdz; Fr. -nar] .
1. a false or baseless, usually derogatory story, report, or rumor.
2. Cookery. a duck intended or used for food.
3. Aeronautics.
a. an airplane that has its horizontal stabilizer and elevators located forward of the wing.
b. Also called canard wing. one of two small lifting wings located in front of the main wings.
c. an early airplane having a pusher engine with the rudder and elevator assembly in front of the wings.
Origin:
1840–50; < F: lit., duck; OF quanart drake, orig. cackler, equiv. to can(er) to cackle (of expressive orig.) + -art -art, as in mallart drake; see mallard
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ca·nard   (kə-närd')   
n.  

  1. An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.

    1. A short winglike control surface projecting from the fuselage of an aircraft, such as a space shuttle, mounted forward of the main wing and serving as a horizontal stabilizer.

    2. An aircraft whose horizontal stabilizing surfaces are forward of the main wing.


[French, duck, canard, probably from the phrase vendre un canard à moitié, to sell half a duck, to swindle, from Old French quanart, duck, from caner, to cackle, of imitative origin.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

canard 
before 1850, from Fr. "a hoax," lit. "a duck," said by Littré to be from the phrase vendre un canard à moitié "to half-sell a duck," thus, from some long-forgotten joke, "to cheat." From O.Fr. quanart, probably echoic of a duck's quack.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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