duck (of either sex); drake (male duck); canard, hoax; newspaper; a man who complies with every desire of his partner in order to avoid conflict
“Le pauvre canard en eut assez de toutes ces railleries et il décida de s'en aller.” — The poor duck had had enough of these taunts and he decided to leave.
Inherited from Middle French canard, from Old French canart, quanart (“duck”), from cane (“female duck", also "boat”), perhaps ultimately from the same imitative root as caner (“to cackle, prattle”) (although caner is attested later than canart) or from Old French cane (“boat, ship; waterbird”), from Frankish *kanō (“boat, floating vessel”), from Proto-Germanic *kanô (“boat, vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *gan-, *gandʰ- (“vessel, tub”). Compare Norwegian kane (“swan-shaped vessel”), German K