In French literature, a fabulous or impossible creature; an absurdity or nonsensical thing; something that doesn't exist or is purely imaginary.
From French coquecigrue, possibly from coq (rooster) + cigrue (crane or some nonsense word); used by Rabelais and other Renaissance writers as a whimsical term for impossible things.
Coquecigrue is the kind of perfectly absurd word that Renaissance writers loved—it sounds like it should mean something but doesn't, and it perfectly captures the playful, made-up-on-the-spot quality of Rabelaisian humor.
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