cocu (French)

Where does "cocu" come from?

French cocu, meaning “cuckolded,” comes from coucou, the French word for “cuckoo.” The connection likely plays on the bird’s name to describe a man whose wife has been unfaithful, a sharp image that became fixed in French as a common insult and adjective.

Full etymology tree

• cocu (French), 'cuckold'
  • derived from coucou (French), 'cuckoo (the bird)'
    • inherited from cucu (Old French)
      • borrowed from cuculus (Latin), 'cuckoo (bird)'

Updated March 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris