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Glite Dictionary
coureur de bois

coureur de bois

9.9
A French Canadian woodsman who trapped animals and traded furs with Native people in the 1600s and 1700s
  • noun
  • /kuːrˈɜːr də bwɑ/
  • Archaic
translation icon : coureur de bois
  • The coureur de bois ventured deep into the forests to trade furs with Indigenous peoples.

Examples

  • The French coureurs de bois, "runners of the woods," traded and trapped for furs and lived with the natives to trade European commercial goods for furs.

    Academic text (1996)

  • A coureur de bois would often travel long distances by canoe to reach trading posts for valuable furs.

  • Indian hospitality "surpasses all that which is general among the Europeans," wrote Nicholas Perrot, a coureur de bois, trader, and agent of the Canadian government who lived in New France among Indians for over thirty years.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Many coureurs de bois established relationships with Native American tribes to facilitate fur trading.

Synonyms

woodsman
vscoureur de bois
11 6.5

A man who lives in the woods and makes things from wood

focuses on catching animal pelts and trading with Indigenous peoples historically
voyageur
vscoureur de bois
  • Archaic
1 9.6

A canoe traveler who carried furs across long rivers in early Canada

is local, catches animal pelts and trades with Indigenous peoples in the 17th-18th centuries

Surface Forms

coureur de bois singular
coureurs de bois plural

Morphology

coureur + de + bois

The literal parts (coureur = runner, de = of, bois = woods) yield a plausible literal gloss like 'runner of the woods' or woodsman, so some basic occupational sense is inferable. However the specific historical meaning (a French-Canadian fur trapper/trader and its cultural-historical nuances) and the fact this is a French loanword make the full sense unpredictable for a B1 learner, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Coureur de bois comes from the French words coureur ('runner') and bois ('woods') and may come from the image of a person moving quickly through the forest to trap animals and trade furs. That's why it came to mean a French-Canadian woodsman or fur trapper who travelled and traded in the wild.