bullion

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bullion, also bolion and billon,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman bullion (“melting house, mint”),^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1284 with the senses "melting or refining of precious metal", "mint" and "gold or silver in ingots".^[9] The further origin is disputed.^[3][10] Most dictionaries take the Anglo-Norman word to be a variant form, from Old French bouillon (“a boiling, bubble”),^{[4][6][7][11][12]} from boillir (“to boil”),^[5][13][14] from Latin bulliō (“to boil, bubble up”),^[6][8][13] from bulla (“bubble”),^[8][11] through Vulgar Latin *bulliōnem (“boiling”), a noun formed from the verb,^[8] the idea being the melting of metal before it was cast or coined.^[15][8] The OED calls the word of obscure etymology: the form points to French bouillon, but the French word never had the English senses, so "boiling" would have had to develop into "melted mass of metal" in England.^[3][12] Etymonline and the MED instead derive it from Old French billon (“bar of precious metal”), from bille (“stick, block of wood”), influenced by the verb for boiling,^[10][2][14] and Partridge and Klein from Middle Dutch bulioen, a variant of billioen, from the French billon.^[16][17] The OED notes that Middle Dutch boelioen meant alloyed gold or silver, but that French billon, base metal, is unrelated in origin, though it influenced some English senses.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in an Anglo-French statute of Edward III of 1336, where it seems to mean a melting house or mint, though 16th-century legal antiquaries took it as a place of exchange.^[3][12] In English the MED quotes bolion, a bar of gold and silver, from 1379, and billon and bullyon of silver brought to the mint in the Rolls of Parliament from 1423 and 1429.^[2][15]

Semantic evolution

By the middle of the 15th century the word meant gold and silver in bulk,^[8] and the sense of gold or silver in the lump, as distinct from coin or wrought objects, is recorded from 1451.^[3] From 1590, in Spenser's Faerie Queene, it could mean solid gold or silver as opposed to a showy imitation, often figuratively.^[3] Some 17th-century uses applied it to impure gold or silver (1616–1820), to any metal in the lump and to base metal,^[3] senses that the OED connects with the French billon.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as gold or silver "in the lump; unwrought; uncoined", quoting Bacon on the balance of trade being returned in coin or bullion.^[18] The old sense "mint" died out in the early 18th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1336 – in an Anglo-French statute, a melting house or mint (obsolete by the early 18th century).^[3][4]
• 1379 – a bar of precious metal; such metal in bars.^[2]
• 1451 – gold or silver in the lump, as distinct from coin.^[3]
• 1463 – a knob or boss of metal, as on a book or harness (obsolete by 1707).^[3]
• 1590 – solid gold or silver, as opposed to imitation; often figurative.^[3]
• 1616 – impure gold or silver (obsolete by 1820).^[3]
• before 1661 – an ornamental fringe of gold or silver thread.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Gold or silver regarded simply as metal, by weight, especially in bars or ingots rather than coins: The vault held bullion worth millions.^[13][5][3]
2. Any metal in the mass: lead bullion.^[5]
3. A thick gold or silver thread, cord or fringe used as trimming, as on military uniforms.^[13][5][3]
4. (obsolete, 1336–early 18th century) A place where precious metal was melted, minted or exchanged; a mint.^[5][3][4]
5. (obsolete, 1463–1707) A knob or boss of metal used as an ornament on harness, books or jewellery.^[5][3][4]

Word family

• bullionless
• bullionist

Related words

• boil
• bouillon
• billon
• billet
• billiards
• ebullient

Usage notes

The sense "fringe of gold or silver thread" has a separate source: the OED takes it as probably from bouillon in senses derived from "bubble", such as twisted gold or silver thread, and notes that it is now often associated with the metal sense.^[3][4][12] The obsolete sense "knob, boss" has a separate source too, apparently boulon, from boule (“ball”), with its form assimilated to bullion.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
16. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
17. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.