# For Francophone Dopers: Why 'Picsou' (Donald Duck)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 31, 2002, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813 "2002-05-31T23:10:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813/1 "2002-05-31T23:10:22Z")

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My stepdaughter is learning French, so she gets Donald Duck comic books in French. The thing is, instead of the name being “Le Canard Donneau”, or some such, it’s “Picsou”. My question is, what if anything does _Picsou_ mean, and why would the French translators have given the famous webfooter that name?

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813/2 "2002-05-31T23:25:32Z")

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I’m afraid you’re confused; “Picsou” is the French name for “Scrooge McDuck.” They just call Donald Duck “Donald.”

(A sou is an old French coin; I think “Picsou” must mean something like “pennypincher.”)

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813/3 "2002-05-31T23:42:11Z")

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Sou = five centimes.  
Pic - sounds like “pique”, from the verb “piquer” = (in one of its meanings) “to steal”.

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**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813/4 "2002-06-01T00:45:33Z")

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The previous posters are right. “Picsou” sounds like “Stealcoin”. And Picsou is Scrooge Mc Duck" And indeed, for some reason, the monthly Donald comic book is titled after Scrooge Mc Duck, instead of Donald Duck. I’ve no clue why…

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813/5 "2002-06-01T00:46:41Z")

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**Arnold** I guess we know which side of the Alps _you_ come from.😉

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813/6 "2002-06-04T20:26:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \*  
> \*\*Sou = five centimes.  
> Pic - sounds like “pique”, from the verb “piquer” = (in one of its meanings) “to steal”. \*\*

Notwithstanding my OP I’d suspected something like this; but concluded it couldn’t be the case because then why would it seem like all my s.d.'s magazines were named after Scrooge McDuck? Of course I don’t follow the Donaldverse in English, let alone French, so maybe Scrooge is more prominent than I realize.

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**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-francophone-dopers-why-picsou-donald-duck/111813/7 "2002-06-05T01:24:41Z")

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FYI - “sou” is pretty common in Quebec to mean a penny. You often also hear “piastres” meaning dollar.