Old English crawan "make a loud noise like a crow," probably imitative (see crow (n.)). Compare Dutch kraaijen, German krähen. From mid-13c. as "make a loud noise like a cock," which oddly has become the main sense, the use of the word in reference to crows (and cranes) having faded. Sense of "exult in triumph" is from 1520s, probably an image of the cock's crow, but perhaps also in part because the English crow is a carrion-eater. Related: Crowed; crowing. As a noun, "characteristic cry of the cock," also "the crowing of the cock at dawn," c. 1200.

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to sing."

It forms all or part of: accent; cant (n.1); cantabile; cantata; cantatrice; canticle; canto; cantor; canzone; Carmen; chanson; chant; chanter; chanteuse; chanty; chanticleer; charm; concent; descant; enchant; enchantment; hen; incantation; incentive; oscine; precentor; recant.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek eikanos "cock," literally "bird who sings (for sunrise);" Latin cantare, canere "to sing;" Old Irish caniaid "sings," Welsh canu "sing;" Old English hana "cock."

early 14c., "officer in charge of a ship's boat and its crew," from cock "ship's boat" (from Old French coque "canoe") + swain "boy," from Old Norse sveinn "boy, servant" (see swain). Short form cox is attested from 1869.

"long-tailed crested desert cuckoo, the chaparral-cock," 1847, American English, from road (n.) + runner. Earliest references give the Mexican Spanish name for it as correcamino and the English name might be a translation of that. The Warner Bros. cartoon character dates to 1948.

"effort to attract love from a motive of vanity or amusement, trifling in love," 1650s, from French coquetterie, from coqueter (v.) "to flirt," originally "to swagger or strut like a cock," from coquet (see coquet).

Coquetry whets the appetite; flirtation depraves it .... ["Ik. Marvel" (Donald Grant Mitchell), "Reveries of a Bachelor," 1851]

1670s, "of or pertaining to the French," from Latin Gallicus "pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls," from Latin Gallia "Gaul" and Gallus "a Gaul" from a native Celtic name (see Gaelic), though some connect the word with prehistoric West Germanic *walkhoz "foreigners" (see Welsh). Originally used in English rhetorically or mockingly for "French." The cock as a symbol of France is based on the pun of Gallus "a Gaul" and Latin gallus "cock" (see gallinaceous). Earlier was Gallican (1590s).

It means not simply 'French,' but 'characteristically', 'delightfully', 'distressingly', or 'amusingly' 'French' ... not 'of France', but 'of the typical Frenchman'. [Fowler]

As "of or pertaining to the ancient Gauls" from 1796.