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boucan

Etymology and origin of the French word boucan

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French boucan
English buccaneer

French has two words spelled boucan: the Caribbean smoking grill, borrowed from Tupi, and the familiar word for a din, of uncertain origin.[1][2][3]

boucan1 smoking grill

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1578, Jean de Léry
Borrowed from
Tupi mboka'ẽ
Ultimate origin
Tupi (mboka'ẽ)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bu.kɑ̃/[3]

Forms

boucan (plural boucans)[3]

Etymology

The grill is borrowed from Tupi “mokaém” “wooden grill”, through a variant “bokaem”, ⟨p⟩, ⟨m⟩ and ⟨b⟩ often alternating at the beginning of words in Tupi and Guarani;[4][5][1][6] Wiktionary gives borrowed from Tupi mboka'ẽ (“wooden grill”).[3] Littré reported other explanations from Carib.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean de Léry's account of his voyage to Brazil (1578) has it for the wooden grill on which the Indians smoked meat and fish.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The Dictionnaire français-caraïbe (1666) uses it for the grills of the Caribbean islands and, by metonymy, for the shelter where the smoking was done and for the smoked meat or fish itself.[4][8] A boucan de tortue (1722) was turtle pâté cooked under embers.[4][7] In New Caledonian French boucan means a spell or poison in Kanak sorcery.[4]

The verb boucaner (1575–1578) “to smoke (meat)” gave boucanier (1654), the adventurers of Santo Domingo who hunted wild cattle and smoked their meat, and later the buccaneers who preyed on the Caribbean.[4][5] English buccan is borrowed from the noun.[3]

Timeline

  • 1575 – The verb boucaner.[4]
  • 1578 – Boucan in Jean de Léry.[4]
  • 1654 – Boucanier.[4]
  • 1666 – The smoking shelter, in the Dictionnaire français-caraïbe.[4]
  • 1722 – Boucan de tortue.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (historical, Caribbean) A wooden grill for smoking meat or fish; the place where this was done.[2][9]
  2. (dated) Meat smoked in this way.[2][10]
  3. (New Caledonia) A spell, poison.[4]

Word family

  • boucaner
  • boucanier
  • boucane

boucan2 din

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
c. 1624

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bu.kɑ̃/[3]

Forms

boucan m (plural boucans)[3]

Etymology

The noise word is of uncertain origin.[4][1] Wartburg, followed by Bloch and Wartburg and Rey, takes it as a back-formation from an old verb “boucaner” “to act like a goat” (1549–1663), also “to frequent brothels”, from bouc, the goat being a symbol of lechery;[4][5][11] Wiktionary derives it from “boucaner” “to imitate the goat's cry” and compares Italian baccano.[3] P. Guiraud linked it instead with “boucan” “smoking shelter”, by way of “hut, house of ill fame”;[4][1] a derivation from Latin Vulcānus (“Vulcan”) through Old French “boucan” “hell” is thought to lack foundation.[4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Les Ramoneurs (about 1624) has it in the sense “house of ill fame”.[8][5][4]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense “din, racket” is found from 1790 in revolutionary pamphlets of the Père Duchêne type (faire un boucan de diable).[13][2] It is now a familiar word: faire du boucan, un boucan de tous les diables.[2][10]

Timeline

  • 1549 – The verb boucaner “to act the goat”.[4]
  • c. 1624 – Boucan “house of ill fame”.[8]
  • 1790 – “Din, racket”.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (familiar) A racket, din, uproar: faire du boucan.[2][10]
  2. (obsolete) A brothel.[8][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 20, 72b
  7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  11. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 588b
  12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  13. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF

Descendants

Cite this entry

“Boucan.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/boucan. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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