cou (French)
Where does "cou" come from?
French cou, meaning “neck,” comes from Latin collum, which had the same meaning. Along the way, French also developed the related form col as a doublet, while other Romance languages kept close relatives such as Italian collo, Portuguese and Galician colo, and Spanish cuello. The deeper origin of Latin collum is uncertain, though it may go back to an Indo-European root meaning “to turn,” referring to the part on which the head turns.
Full etymology tree
- cou (French), 'neck'
- inherited from collum (Latin), 'The neck or throat.'
- inherited from *kʷolsom (Proto-Italic)
- inherited from *kʷolso- (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived from *kʷel- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited from *kʷolso- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited from *kʷolsom (Proto-Italic)
- inherited from collum (Latin), 'The neck or throat.'
Ancestors
- collum (Latin)
Cognates and doublets
- col (French)
- collo (Italian)
- cuello (Spanish)
Descendants and derived words
- collet (French)
- collier (French)
- être dans la merde jusqu'au cou (French)
- prendre ses jambes à son cou (French)
- tordre le cou (French)
Updated March 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris