shark; a person profiting from others by treachery
“Je suis un bébé requin / Au ventre blanc, aux dents nacrées / Dans les eaux chaudes, je t'entraînerai” — I'm a baby shark / White-bellied, pearl-toothed / Into warm waters I will drag you
Synonyms: squale
From Middle French requin (1539), of uncertain origin. Several hypotheses have been advanced: * From requiem. While early spellings like requien (1578) or requiem (17th c.) may be influenced by this, it is probably a folk etymology. * From re- + Picard or Norman quien (“dog”); cognate of chien. Compare chien de mer (literally “sea dog”), a word used to refer to several species of sharks. * Deverbal of Old Northern French requignier (“to grimace while baring teeth”), from re- + Frankish *kīnan (“