Dictionary of Animal Names and Expressions Used Figuratively by Modern Francophone Authors: The French Bestiary

Description

The French language abounds in animal imagery and symbolism. No student of French vocabulary can fail to be struck by the extent to which animal names occur in its idioms, metaphors, proverbs and designations of entities belonging to other conceptual fields. From the leviathan whale to the humble earthworm and the majestic eagle to the irritant louse, a broad spectrum of creatures are pressed into service to lend expressiveness and colour to French written and spoken. A French Bestiary provides in an easily accessible dictionary format an exhaustive repertory of the figurative use of French animal names and exemplifies the expressions inventoried by quoting French and Francophone authors. The body of the text provides a conspectus of 325 headwords and 2255 meanings and expressions, arranged according to rigorous lexicographical principles and illustrated by nearly 4,500 citations. Each animal name forms the basis of an article. The headword is followed by a number of subdivisions, starting with zoological designation and ending with etymology. Some of all of the following intermediate subdivisions also appear: product and colour, human reference, non-human reference, idiom, proverb, compound. An index in English and scientific animal names is provided to facilitate cross reference.