bouquet

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bouquet (“bunch of flowers”),^[2][3][4][5] in Middle French a thicket, originally a "little wood".^[4][6][2][3] The French word is a diminutive from Old Northern French bosquet (“thicket”),^[6][7] a dialect form of bos, bois (“wood, forest”);^[5][7][8] Etymonline calls it a Picard form of Old French boschet,^[3] and Barnhart also gives the diminutives boscet and bosket.^[4] Its base, bosc, is from Medieval Latin boscus (“wood, grove”),^[3][9][10] which Barnhart derives from Frankish, comparing Old High German busc (“bush, forest”);^[4] Merriam-Webster and Collins call the Germanic origin only probable.^[6][11] It is related to Italian boschetto,^[2][12] to bush and ambush,^[13][14] and English bosket is a doublet.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bunch of flowers: 1717, in a letter of Lady Mary Montagu of 1 April,^[2] who introduced it as a French word;^[3][4] Barnhart dates her letters 1716–18.^[4] Merriam-Webster gives 1701.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The French word had first meant a clump of trees or little wood^[2][5][8] before it came to mean a bunch of flowers, and Klein compares French bouquet d'arbres (“group of trees, grove”);^[9] and Partridge traces the further step from the nosegay to its smell and then to the smell of wine.^[15] The sense "aroma of a wine" is recorded by 1815 in Etymonline,^[3] from 1846 in the OED^[2] and in the mid-19th century in the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[8][14] In the same year, 1846, a bouquet was also a bunch of herbs for flavouring, the bouquet garni.^[2] Later transferred senses were a large flight of rockets at the end of a firework display (1879) and a rush of pheasants breaking cover (1875).^[2] The figurative sense "a compliment", as in to throw bouquets, is recorded from 1904.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1717 – a bunch of flowers (Lady Mary Montagu).^[2][4]
• 1815 – the aroma of a wine.^[3]
• 1846 – the perfume of wine; a bunch of flavouring herbs.^[2]
• 1875 – a flight of pheasants breaking cover.^[2]
• 1879 – a large flight of rockets in a firework display.^[2]
• 1904 – a compliment, praise.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bunch of flowers, especially a large, carefully arranged one; a nosegay: The bride carried a bouquet of white roses.^[11][6][7]
2. The characteristic aroma or fragrance of a wine or liqueur; the nose.^[11][7][2]
3. A varied assortment or medley: a bouquet of folk tunes.^[6]
4. A compliment or expression of praise.^[11][7][2]

Related words

• ambush
• bush
• bosket
• bosky
• bouquet garni

Usage notes

British English has /bəʊˈkeɪ/ and /buːˈkeɪ/, among other pronunciations;^[2][11] Collins gives only /buːˈkeɪ/ for the sense of a wine's aroma.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul