canard
a false report
TRANSLATION
canard = die Falschmeldung, die Zeitungsente canard (aviation) = das Entenflugzeug, der Entenflügler --- GOOGLE INDEX canard: approximately 27,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The German allegation that these variations were the result of short selling of these insurance contracts in the form of credit default swaps is a CANARD , according to the IMF.
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Lance Armstrong also continued to rely on an old CANARD that he had never publicly failed a drug test.
(www.app.com)
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Lance Armstrong also continued to rely on an old CANARD that he had never publicly failed a drug test.
(www.app.com)
Did you
know?
canard
noun
- an unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.
- an aircraft whose horizontal stabilizing surfaces are forward of the main wing
- 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
(American Heritage Dictionary)
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A New York Times article from 1896 offers one explanation for the origin of the word "canard." The story reported that a Mr. Cornelissen, a member of the Academy of Brussels, was annoyed that newspapers often printed fabulous tales of questionable merit.
As a joke, he sent a self-fabricated tale to a newspaper about an alleged experiment with ducks. The experiment aimed to prove that ducks are cannibals. Mr. Cornelissen claimed he owned a flock of 25 ducks. He killed them one by one and fed the meat from each "dead duck" to the surviving ducks.
Needless to say, at some point there remained only one duck which eventually died on its own. A post-mortem investigation of duck nr. 25 revealed that it died of internal injuries suffered by eating the other 24 ducks.
This pointless story eventually made the rounds of the French newspapers so that the voracious appetite of the duck, and simply the word duck (French = canard), came to be synonymous with sensational and questionable journalism and false reporting in general.
As it turns out, this origin of canard in the sense of a misleading tale is itself a canard. Most etymologists believe the actual source is the French expression "vendre un canard à moitié," literally meaning to sell half a duck, which is interpreted as cheating or deceiving.
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SYNONYMS
fabrication, fib, hoax, rumour, sham, story, tale, yarn
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Some people still believe the canard that Bush deliberately planned 9-11."
noun
- an unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.
- an aircraft whose horizontal stabilizing surfaces are forward of the main wing
- 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
(American Heritage Dictionary)
---
A New York Times article from 1896 offers one explanation for the origin of the word "canard." The story reported that a Mr. Cornelissen, a member of the Academy of Brussels, was annoyed that newspapers often printed fabulous tales of questionable merit.
As a joke, he sent a self-fabricated tale to a newspaper about an alleged experiment with ducks. The experiment aimed to prove that ducks are cannibals. Mr. Cornelissen claimed he owned a flock of 25 ducks. He killed them one by one and fed the meat from each "dead duck" to the surviving ducks.
Needless to say, at some point there remained only one duck which eventually died on its own. A post-mortem investigation of duck nr. 25 revealed that it died of internal injuries suffered by eating the other 24 ducks.
This pointless story eventually made the rounds of the French newspapers so that the voracious appetite of the duck, and simply the word duck (French = canard), came to be synonymous with sensational and questionable journalism and false reporting in general.
As it turns out, this origin of canard in the sense of a misleading tale is itself a canard. Most etymologists believe the actual source is the French expression "vendre un canard à moitié," literally meaning to sell half a duck, which is interpreted as cheating or deceiving.
---
SYNONYMS
fabrication, fib, hoax, rumour, sham, story, tale, yarn
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Some people still believe the canard that Bush deliberately planned 9-11."
