Cucoloris

[Douglas G. Wilson]

At 09:47 PM 9/30/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>    German has a very similar word, albeit with a different meaning:
>KOKOLORES, KOKOLORUS, masc. (no plural): (a) rubbish, nonsense,
>twaddle, (b) palaver, fuss; e.g. "mach doch nicht solchen Kokolores
>don't make such a fuss.
>(c) = German "Kram", in: den ganzen Kokolores/all den Kokolores
>einpacken to pack in the whole caboodle/shebang.
>
>     Might the U.S./British term denoting "screens made of perforated
>plastic or wood that are placed in front of the luminaire" have
>derived from the German word? Perhaps (and yes, yes, I know this is
>speculating) a German referred to a pile of the screens as Kokolores,
>intending the equivalent of "Kram" (stuff, junk, things), which was
>then interpreted by a non-German speaker as a technical term for
>these screens.
>
>Gerald Cohen
>
>
>>At 10:07 AM +0100 9/30/02, Michael Quinion wrote:
>>While looking into the film and stage lighting term 'gobo' for kinds
>>of screen used to generate patterns of light and shadow on the set, I
>>came across "cucoloris" (variously spelt) as a common term for some
>>sorts - screens made of perforated plastic or wood that are placed in
>>front of the luminaire. The word is in no dictionary that I've been
>>able to trace, nor is there any indication of its origin. One
>>possibility might be the classical Latin "cucullus" for a hood or
>>cowl, which it is just possible some early photographer might have
>>borrowed. Does anybody have any evidence at all for this word that
>>might throw light (ahem) on where it comes from?

Only speculation.

The Kluge German etymological dictionary says "Kokolores" is a fake-Latin
coinage, and compares it to "cockalorum" in English. Maybe "cucoloris" is a
variant of "Kokolores" or a another parallel fanciful coinage. The
cucoloris -- also "cucalorus" etc. -- is perhaps a disc, since it is called
a "cookie": maybe the "cookie" came first, later elaborated to "cookaloris"
by analogy to the German word. The spelling "cocoloris" can be found in a
number of European Web items, where it covers "cucoloris" and more often
the name of a band (thus likely reflecting "Kokolores" too). Hard to tell
whether some instances are spelling errors, of course.

Another possibility would be a trade-name origin: e.g., I can imagine a
Spanish-language "Cucolores" < "cuco" [i.e., "cute"/"sly"] + "colores", but
my feel for Spanish may leave something to be desired.

"Cucullus" of course has modern reflexes in Spanish and in scientific Latin
(e.g., "cucullaris" = "trapezius"), but I can't find any with endings like
"-oris"/"-orus".

-- Doug Wilson