dauphin definition - Dictionaries

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dauphin [ dáwfin, dṓfin ] (plural dauphins)

noun

Definition:

crown prince of France: in former times, the eldest son of the king of France and the direct heir to the throne

[15th century. < French, in Old French daulphin (see dolphin); because of dolphins on a relevant coat of arms]

Word History


	The title dauphin originally belonged to the lords of the Viennois, an area in the southeast of France, whose coat of arms incorporated three dolphins. After the Viennois province of Dauphiné was sold by Charles of Valois to the French crown in 1343, the king gave it to his eldest son, and from then on all eldest sons of the French monarch inherited it, along with the title dauphin.

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