bourbon

Pronunciation

• /ˈbɜː(ɹ).bən/, /ˈbʊə(ɹ).bən/^[1]

Etymology

The whiskey is named after Bourbon County, Kentucky, where it was first made,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} supposedly in 1789.^[2] Partridge explains bourbon as short for Bourbon whisky.^[7] Etymonline says the county was organized in 1785, one of nine set up by the Virginia legislature before Kentucky became a state, and that its name shows American gratitude to the French royal family, especially Louis XVI, for the help he had given the rebel colonists.^[2] The family took its name from Bourbon-l'Archambault, the chief town of a lordship in central France,^{[2][8][9][4][10]} which Etymonline and Klein trace to Borvo, a Celtic god of thermal springs.^[2][8] Partridge relates his name to a root meaning to be hot, bubbling as hot springs do, and compares Latin ferveō (“to boil”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An American corn whiskey: by 1840 in Etymonline,^[2] and 1846 in the OED, from a record printed in American Speech.^[9] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford date it to the mid 19th century.^[5][4] The name of the royal house is much older in English: Merriam-Webster dates it to 1596,^[11] and the OED's first quotation, from Sterne's Sentimental Journey, is of 1768.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The island of Réunion was called Bourbon in honour of the French royal family from 1642, and the Bourbon rose (1836), a hybrid believed to have arisen there, is named after it.^[9][4] Because the restored Bourbons were proverbially said to "forget nothing and learn nothing" (a quip recorded by 1830), the name was used for extreme conservatives.^[2] From 1859, in American politics, a Bourbon was a backward-looking Democrat.^[9][4] The American Heritage Dictionary explains this use partly by the reactionary rule of the Bourbons in France from 1815 to 1830 and partly by the Southern origins of bourbon whiskey.^[6] In Britain a bourbon is also a chocolate biscuit with a chocolate cream filling, recorded from 1932.^[9][4]

Timeline

• 1836 – Bourbon rose, a hybrid rose.^[9]
• 1840 – American corn whiskey, by this date.^[2]
• 1846 – whiskey of the kind first made in Bourbon County, Kentucky.^[9]
• 1859 – in US politics, a reactionary Democrat.^[9]
• 1932 – a chocolate biscuit with a chocolate cream filling.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An American whiskey distilled mainly from maize, with some malt and rye, and aged in charred oak barrels; a glass of it.^[3][9][4]
2. (British) A biscuit flavoured with chocolate and filled with chocolate cream; also Bourbon biscuit.^[9][4]
3. (US, usually capitalized) A political reactionary, originally a conservative Democrat of the old school.^[9][4][6]
4. (capitalized) A member of the royal family that ruled France, Spain and Naples.^[3][11][9]
5. (usually capitalized) A Bourbon rose.^[9][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster