morceau
English
Etymology
From French morceau, from Old French morsel, from Medieval Latin morsellum (“a bit, a little piece”), diminutive of Latin morsum (“a bit”), neuter of morsus, past participle of mordeō, mordēre (“bite, nibble, gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *merə- (“to rub, wipe; to pack, rob”).
Noun
morceau (plural morceaus or morceaux)
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for morceau in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
French
Etymology
From Old French morsel (whence also English morsel), from Medieval Latin morsellum (“a bit, a little piece”), diminutive of Latin morsum (“a bit”), neuter of morsus, past participle of mordeō, mordēre (“bite, nibble, gnaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *merə- (“to rub, wipe; to pack, rob”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mɔʁ.so/
audio (un morceau) (file)
Derived terms
- emporter le morceau
- en morceaux
- en mille morceaux
- cracher le morceau
- manger un morceau
- (piece): mcx (abbreviation)
Further reading
- “morceau” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).