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prettygoodwordcurtal (KUR-tl) - adj., cut short. n., an animal with a docked tail; a 16th century ancestor of the bassoon.
Mostly archaic, if not obsolete. The noun sense came first, with the adjective as a back-formation: used since the end of the 15th century, from Middle French courtault, animal whose tail has been docked, from court, short (from Latin curtus) + -ault, a pejorative suffix.
Mostly archaic, if not obsolete. The noun sense came first, with the adjective as a back-formation: used since the end of the 15th century, from Middle French courtault, animal whose tail has been docked, from court, short (from Latin curtus) + -ault, a pejorative suffix.
