English
amadou
Amadou comes from French amadou ‘tinder, lure, bait’, and goes back to amadouer ‘to allure, caress’.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentamadouer‘to allure, caress’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentamadou‘tinder, lure, bait’
- Englishtodaysame form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentamadouer‘to allure, caress’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentamadou‘tinder, lure, bait’
- Englishtodaysame form
The story
From French amadou (‘tinder, lure, bait’), from amadouer (‘to allure, caress’), perhaps from Icelandic mata (‘to feed’), which is akin to English meat.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- ‘to drip, to ooze, to wet’
meet, mod, moot, meatless, 12 more
through Proto-Germanic *matiz ‘food’
Today it means
noun A spongy, flammable substance prepared from bracket fungi, formerly used as a styptic and as tinder.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French amadouer / amadou