Canard

Pardon my French

Archibald Thorburn Buffelheaded Duck, American Green­winged Teal, and Hooded Merganser (1922)

In quotidian French, the word canard describes a duck, and, in particular, a coote’s cousin of the male persuasion. In English, it has come to mean two things, both of which harken back to the fully-fledged, fond-of-ponds, lake-loving original. In one case, it…