fou

See also: Fou, fóu, fǒu, and -fou

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots fou. Compare full, a doublet.

Adjective

fou (comparative more fou, superlative most fou)

1. (Scotland) Drunk.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk

   • 2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 110:

     Shand's father had missed the whole thing — getting fou in the pub, more than likely—but his mum had been there, in her best green twinset, her court shoes polished to a shine as high as Shand's.

See also

• Ch'ü-fou
• succès fou
• yuck fou

 

Anagrams

• UFO, ufo

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈfow]

Etymology 1

Inherited from Latin fōcem, early monophthongized variant of faucem.

Noun

fou m (plural fous)

1. (archaic) a narrow cove
2. a narrow passage, a ravine

   Synonym: barranc

Etymology 2

Verb

fou

1. third-person singular preterite indicative of ser
2. third-person singular preterite indicative of ésser

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, 2024
• “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)

• Rhymes: -u
• Homophones: fous, fout

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle French fol, from Old French fol, from Latin follem. Cognate with English fool.

Adjective

fou (masculine singular before vowel fol, feminine folle, masculine plural fous, feminine plural folles)

1. mad, crazy

   Synonyms: folle, dingue, loufoque, cinglé, farfelu, détraqué, maboul, louf, ouf, cinglé, cintré, taré, dingo

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

 

Descendants

• Louisiana Creole: fou

Noun

fou m (plural fous, feminine folle)

1. madman
2. jester (court entertainer)
3. (colloquial) nut (extreme enthusiast)

   Synonym: malade

   C’est un fou de voile. ― He's a sailing nut.

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

Derived from Spanish alfil, from Arabic اَلْفِيل (al-fīl, “elephant; bishop (chess piece)”), influenced by Etymology 1.

Noun

fou m (plural fous)

1. (chess) bishop
2. booby (bird)

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• ouf

Louisiana Creole

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fu/
• Rhymes: -u

Etymology 1

Inherited from French fou (“mad, crazy”).

Adjective

fou m (feminine fòl)

1. crazy, mad

Etymology 2

Inherited from French four (“oven, stove”).

Noun

fou

1. (an) oven

Luxembourgish

Verb

fou

1. second-person singular imperative of fouen

Mandarin

Romanization

fou

1. Nonstandard spelling of fóu.
2. Nonstandard spelling of fǒu.
3. Nonstandard spelling of fòu.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Mauritian Creole

Etymology

Derived from French fou.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fu/

Noun

fou (feminine fol)

1. (masculine) madman (a mad, crazy male person)

Adjective

fou (feminine fol)

1. (masculine) mad, crazy, insane

   Synonym: pagla

Middle English

Alternative forms

• fawe, fay, fogh, fow, fowe, vouh
• fah, fau, foaȝe, foȝ, foh, vaȝe (Early Middle English)

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

1. multicoloured / multicolored, 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)

1. 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

Inherited from Old French forn, from Latin furnus.

Noun

fou m (plural fous)

1. (Jersey) oven

Old French

Alternative forms

• fau

Etymology

Inherited from Latin fagus.

Noun

fou oblique singular, m (oblique plural fous, nominative singular fous, nominative plural fou)

1. beech (tree)

Descendants

• ⇒ French: fouet

Old Irish

Pronoun

fou

1. Alternative spelling of fóu

Romanian

Interjection

fou

1. Obsolete form of fă.

References

• fou in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Samoan

Etymology

Derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(ma-)baqəʀu, from Proto-Austronesian *(ma-)baqəʀuh.

Adjective

fou

1. new (recently made or created)

Scots

Etymology 1

Derived 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)

1. full
2. well-fed, full of food or drink, sated, replete
3. 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 quotation)

Adverb

fou (comparative mair fou, superlative maist fou)

1. fully, very, quite, rather, too

Etymology 2

Noun

fou

1. saxifrage

Etymology 3

Noun

fou (plural fous)

1. bushel

Tsou

Noun

fou

1. animal meat

West Makian

Etymology 1

Possibly cognate to Ternate horu (“to paddle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɸo.u/

Verb

fou

1. (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

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɸo.u/

Noun

fou

1. betel leaf

References

• James Collins (1982) Further Notes Towards a West Makian Vocabulary‎^[1], Pacific linguistics