Note 195 — Chapter IV · THE DOLPHIN—HERODOTUS—THE ICHTHYOPHAGI—THE TUNNY

From the fish (in old English daulphin) came apparently the title of the eldest son of the kings of France from 1349 to 1830. According to Littré the name Dauphin, borne by the lords of the Viennois, was the proper name Delphinus (the same word as the name of the fish), whence the province subject to them was called Dauphiné. Humbert III., on ceding the province, made it a condition that the title should be perpetuated by being borne by the eldest son of the French king. A. Brachet, An Etymological Dict. of the French Language3 (Oxford, 1883), p. 113, states that the title—peculiar to S. France—first appears in 1140: “the origin is obscure, though it certainly represents the Delphinus.”