fleuve

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French fleuve, from late Old French flueve (12th cent.), according to the traditional view, a dissimilated form of fluive, fluie, a re-borrowing of Latin fluvius (“stream”). Alternatively, confluence with Old French fluet, flot ("river, flood"; from Frankish *flōd) and/or borrowing from Old Norse flóð (“tidal flood, estuarine river or flood”) cannot be ruled out. See flot. Replaced native Old French fluns, flum, from Latin flūmen (compare Occitan flume, Romansch flüm, Italian fiume).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flœv/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

fleuve m (plural fleuves)

1. a river that flows into an ocean or sea (a river that flows into another river or body of water is called a rivière)

   L’Amazone est un fleuve d’Amérique du Sud.

   The Amazon is a river located in South America.

   Le fleuve Churchill au Labrador se jette dans l’Atlantique, alors que la rivière Churchill au Manitoba se jette dans la baie d’Hudson.

   The Churchill River in Labrador flows into the Atlantic Ocean, whereas the Churchill River in Manitoba flows into Hudson Bay.

2. (figurative) a continuous and unstoppable stream of people, things, or words

   Ce qui devait être une brève question est rapidement devenue un discours-fleuve.

   What was supposed to be a brief question quickly became a long-winded speech.

   • 1900, Paul Margueritte, Victor Margueritte, Les Tronçons du glaive:

     Tandis que le lugubre fleuve d’hommes, sinuant à travers les routes encaissées, précipitait vers Pontarlier le débordement de ses vagues, […].

     As the grim river of people, winding through the steep-walled roads, sent its overflowing waves toward Pontarlier...

3. (mythology, art) a river god, or the allegorical artistic representation of a river as an old, bearded man lying on reeds and holding or leaning on an urn from which the river's water flows
   • 1842, Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau, “L’Archipel de Chausey, souvenirs d’un Naturaliste,”, in Revue des Deux Mondes, volume 30:

     Les îles grandissent peu à peu et s’entourent d’une large ceinture de roches tapissées de mousses noirâtres ou de longs fucus bruns qui pendent à leurs flancs comme les roseaux de marbre dont les sculpteurs du dernier siècle ornaient leurs statues de fleuves.

     The islands gradually grow and are surrounded by a broad belt of rocks carpeted with blackish mosses or long brown seaweed hanging from their sides, like the marble reeds with which last century's sculptors decorated their statues of river gods.

Derived terms

• long fleuve tranquille

Related terms

• fluvial

See also

• rivière
• ru

Further reading

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

Walloon

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fløːf/

Noun

fleuve m (plural fleuves)

1. river