budge

budge¹ lambskin fur

Etymology

The word for the fur is inherited from Middle English bugee, also bogey and bouge,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman bogee, a fur of lambskin recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1298.^[2][5][3] Its further origin is disputed.^[6][4][3] The Middle English Dictionary compares Medieval Latin bogea and perhaps bulgia, and thinks the word may be akin to Old French bouge (“wallet”);^[3] the American Heritage Dictionary derives it from Medieval Latin bugia, probably from Latin bulga (“leather bag”), the source of budget.^[4] Dictionary.com also calls it perhaps akin to budget.^[7] The OED and the Shorter Oxford call the origin unknown:^[6][8] the OED notes that the word is usually identified with bouge, a leather bag, but finds the connection of sense unclear and the early forms of two syllables, and suggests Old French bouchet (“a kid”) if the first sense was kidskin.^[6] The Shorter Oxford equates it with Medieval Latin buggetum.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sheepskin used as fur: the Middle English Dictionary cites bugee from a customs record of 1303, and has buge as a hood's fur in 1310.^[3] The OED's first record is from 1395, of lamb's skin with the wool dressed outwards.^[6] Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English Dictionary defines the medieval fur as sheepskin, as distinct from lambskin,^[3] while the OED, Merriam-Webster and Johnson describe it as lambskin with the wool outwards.^[6][2][9] It lined gowns and mantles in 15th-century wills and inventories,^[3] and the Middle English Dictionary records bouge rowe as a name for Furriers' Row.^[3] Used attributively, the word described clothing made of budge or people wearing it;^[8] the Shorter Oxford treats the later sense "solemn, pompous" as a development of this use.^[8] The fur is now mentioned only in historical writing.^[8][2]

Timeline

• 1303 – sheepskin or lambskin fur, in a customs record.^[3]
• 1395 – lamb's skin with the wool dressed outwards.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A fur made from lambskin or sheepskin dressed with the wool outward, formerly used to trim gowns.^[2][6][8]

budge² move, give way

Etymology

The verb meaning to move is borrowed from Middle French bouger (“to stir”), also bougier,^{[10][2][6][7][11]} from bougier,^[2] from Vulgar Latin *bullicō (“to bubble, boil”),^{[10][2][11][4]} a frequentative of Latin bulliō (“to boil, bubble”),^[7][6] from bulla (“bubble”).^[12][13][8] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1354.^[5] Etymonline explains the sense as "boil", hence "be in motion".^[11] The derivation goes back to Diez, and the OED, Hoad and Weekley support it with Occitan bolegar (“to disturb oneself”) and Italian bulicare (“to bubble up”);^[6][14][15] Weekley calls it rather speculative but strongly supported.^[15] Etymonline and the OED compare Spanish bullir (“to move about, bustle”) and Portuguese bulir (“to move, stir”).^[11][6] The verb is related to boil.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move from one's place, to stir, usually with a negative: 1578 in Merriam-Webster,^[2] before 1592 in the OED, in Robert Greene's Orlando Furioso.^[6] Barnhart dates the verb to 1590, and Etymonline the intransitive use to the 1580s.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb was used almost always with a negative, of something that stands firm or stubbornly.^[6] The transitive sense, to move a heavy thing, followed in 1605,^[6] or in the 1590s according to Etymonline.^[11] Shakespeare used it, perhaps after the French, for "to wince, flinch", a sense the OED records only until 1651.^[6] In 16th- and 17th-century thieves' slang budge was a general verb of stealthy action, as in budge out, to sneak off,^[11] and in 1610 it meant to leave.^[16] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to stir; to move off the place" and called it "a low word".^[9][15] Hotten's slang dictionary (1859) has it for "to inform".^[16] The figurative sense, to change one's position or opinion, is first recorded in Noël Coward's Private Lives (1930),^[6] and dialects from Scotland to Devon used the verb for "to give way, yield" and "to hurry".^[17]

Timeline

• 1578 – to move, stir, give way.^[2]
• 1605 – to move a heavy thing.^[6]
• 1610 – in thieves' slang, to leave.^[16]
• before 1616 – to wince or flinch, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (obsolete by 1651).^[6]
• 1859 – in slang, to inform.^[16]
• 1930 – to change one's position or opinion.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move, even slightly; to shift or give way, usually with a negative: The cat would not budge from the warm chair.^[2][12][6]
2. To make something move: Nobody could budge the old wardrobe.^[2][12][6]
3. To change, or make someone change, an opinion or position; to yield: The council refused to budge on the plan.^[2][12][6]

Word family

• budger
• unbudged
• unbudging

budge³ pompous, solemn

Etymology

The adjective meaning pompous or solemn is of unknown origin.^[2][6] Johnson called it of uncertain etymology.^[9] The OED tentatively compares bug and bog as adjectives,^[6] but sees a reference to the fur in its first quotation and suggests that a “budge doctor” was at first one who wore budge fur;^[6] the Shorter Oxford derives the sense from the fur noun used attributively.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Stiff, formal, pompous in manner: 1599 in Merriam-Webster.^[2] The OED's first record is Milton's “budge doctors of the Stoic fur” in Comus (1637),^[6] the passage Johnson quoted.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "surly; stiff; formal".^[9] The OED's records of it end in 1782,^[6] the year of Cowper's “the solemn fop, significant and budge”,^[17] but the word lived on in the dialects of Sussex, Hampshire and Wiltshire for "grave, solemn", and in Wiltshire budgy meant sulky.^[17] In southern and eastern English dialect it also meant brisk and lively, from 1691 to 1721.^[6]

Timeline

• 1599 – stiff, formal or pompous in manner.^[2]
• 1691 – in dialect, brisk, lively (to 1721).^[6]
• 1782 – still in literary use, in Cowper.^[17][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (archaic) Austere or stiff in manner; pompous, solemn.^[2][6][9]