dauphin

Inherited from Middle English Dauphin, from Middle French dauphin, from Old French dalphin, from Latin delphinus; the modern pronunciation is sometimes remodelled on Modern French. Doublet of dolphin.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdəʊ.fæ̃/, /ˈdɔː.fɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /doʊˈfæ̃/, /ˈdɔ.fɪn/, /ˈdɔ.fən/
• Rhymes: -ɔːfɪn

dauphin (plural dauphins)

1. The eldest son of the king of France. Under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, the Dauphin of France, generally shortened to Dauphin, was heir apparent to the throne of France. The title derived from the main title of the Dauphin, Dauphin of Viennois.
2. (figurative) An eldest son.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "I wish we were back in Tenth Street. But so many children came […] and the Tenth Street house wasn't half big enough; and a dreadful speculative builder built this house and persuaded Austin to buy it. Oh, dear, and here we are among the rich and great; and the steel kings and copper kings and oil kings and their heirs and dauphins. […]"

• pudhina

Borrowed from French dauphin.

• IPA^(key): [ˈdofɛːn]
• Hyphenation: dau‧phin

dauphin m anim (female equivalent dauphine)

1. dauphin (the eldest son of the king of France and heir apparent to the French throne)
   • 1913, Květy‎^[1], volume 35, page 599:

     Malý dauphin jest nemocen, malý dauphin umře… Ve všech kostelích v království stále dnem i nocí jest vystavena svátost oltářní a veliké svíčky plají za uzdravení královského dítěte.

     The little dauphin is ill, the little dauphin is going to die… In all the churches in the kingdom the Eucharist is displayed day and night and big candles burn so that the royal child recovers.

• “dauphin”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “dauphin”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “dauphin”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

• IPA^(key): /do.fɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Inherited from Old French dalphin, from Latin delphinus.

dauphin m (plural dauphins)

1. dolphin
2. (heraldry) dolphin; the animal used as a charge

• Haitian Creole: dofen

From French proper name Dauphin through association with crown princes of the name, from French dauphin, from Old French dalphin, from Latin delphinus.

dauphin m (plural dauphins, feminine dauphine)

1. successor, dauphin
2. runner-up

• dauphinat

• delphinal

• → Arabic: دوفِين (dōfīn)
• → Bulgarian: дофин (dofin)
• → Czech: dauphin
• → English: dauphin
• → Estonian: dofään
• → German: Dauphin
• → Ottoman Turkish: دوفَن (dofen)
  • Turkish: dofen
• → Persian: دوفَن (dofan)
• → Polish: delfin (semantic loan)
• → Portuguese: dauphin
• → Portuguese: delfim (semantic loan)
• → Romanian: delfin (semantic loan)
• → Russian: дофи́н (dofín)
  • → Azerbaijani: dofin
  • → Uzbek: dofin
• → Spanish: delfín (semantic loan)
• → Ukrainian: дофі́н (dofín)

• “dauphin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• 'dauphin' in French Wiktionary

Borrowed from French dauphin. Doublet of delfim.

dauphin m (plural dauphins)

1. (historical) dauphin (eldest son of the king of France)

   Synonym: delfim