bouche

Pronunciation

• IPA: /buʃ/^[1]
• IPA (Quebec): /bʊʃ/^[1]

Forms

bouche f (plural bouches)^[1] Old French buce, buche, then boche (about 1150).^[2][3][1] Picard has bouque.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French boche, inherited from Latin bucca (“puffed-out cheek, (plural) cheeks, jaws”).^[2][5][3][6] Popular Latin already used it for the mouth, as Cicero shows, and it replaced classical ōs (“mouth”): an expressive word taking the place of the ordinary one.^[5][2] Romanian bucă keeps the sense “cheek”.^[5][2] Rey and the Petit Robert consider “bucca” to be of Celtic (Gaulish) origin, with no correspondents outside Latin.^[2][7]

Cognate with Italian bocca, Old Occitan boca, Catalan boca, Spanish boca and Portuguese boca.^[5][7] bouque is a doublet, through Picard or Provençal.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As buce it is found about 1050 in the Vie de saint Alexis, meaning the mouth.^[8][2] The Chanson de Roland has Puis se baiserent es buches et es viz (“then they kissed each other on the mouth and face”).^[4]

Semantic evolution

As the seat of taste and the organ of speech the word gave many phrases: pour la bonne bouche (1578), “to finish with”, bouche cousue “keep it quiet”, recorded by Furetière in 1690; and à bouche que veux-tu “in profusion” (1649).^[2] By metonymy it meant a person to be fed (1660), as in bouches inutiles.^[2]

By analogy it has named the opening of a cavity since about 1150, the mouth of a river since the late 12th century and the muzzle of a gun since 1690, bouche d'égout belongs to this use.^[2] The western dialects of France now mostly say gueule for the mouth.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Buce in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[8][2]
• c. 1150 – The form boche; first used for any opening.^[2]
• late 12th century – The mouth of a river.^[2]
• 1578 – Pour la bonne bouche.^[2]
• 1649 – À bouche que veux-tu.^[2]
• 1660 – A person to feed.^[2]
• 1690 – The muzzle of a gun, bouche cousue in Furetière.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mouth: ouvrir la bouche, respirer par la bouche.^[7][9]
2. The lips and their expression: une bouche dédaigneuse.^[7][9]
3. The mouth as the seat of taste: avoir la bouche sèche, (of wine) long en bouche.^[7]
4. The mouth as the organ of speech: de bouche à oreille, bouche cousue.^[2][7]
5. A person to be fed: avoir trois bouches à nourrir.^[2]
6. An opening: bouche d'égout, the muzzle of a gun.^[2][3]
7. (chiefly plural) The mouth of a river.^[2]

Word family

• bouchée
• aboucher
• arrière-bouche
• déboucher
• emboucher
• embouchure

Related words

• buccal
• boucle
• bouque
• Latin bucca

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e 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. 1, 581b
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)