Etymology
At Aloxe-Corton, this climat spreads over two large plots below Le Corton. Are they so named because there were fox dens or burrows? Or did these parcels belong to a family called Renard? It is after all a common name.
Renard (masculine noun, beginning of the 13th century).
In the Middle Ages, foxes (renards in French) bore the name of goupil – from Latin VULPECULA “small fox, fox”. If the name goupil was maintained until the 17th century, renard was adopted in the French language at the beginning of the 13th century with the circulation of the ROMAN DE RENART. This is a series of tales or stories presenting animals whose main hero is Renart, the goupil. Renart is a Germanic proper noun : REGINHART “the cunning one” that became a common noun spelt with a final -d. This cunning, carnivorous animal which loves game birds and chickens has left traces of its passage in some climat and lieu-dit names.
ATTENTION : copyright application iOS ClimaVinea or https://www.athenaeum.com/livre/2337006-climats-et-lieux-dits-des-grands-vignobles-de-b–sylvain-pitiot-marie-helene-landrieu-lussigny-editions-jean-pierre-de-monza (ISBN 978-2-916231-20-4)