bouillir

Forms

bouillir^[1] Old French bolir, boulir and boillir, with the participles bouli and boulu.^[2][3][1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French boillir, inherited from Latin bulliō (“to bubble, boil”),^[1][4][2][5] a verb derived from bulla (“bubble”), properly “to make bubbles”.^[2][4] Rey notes that the Latin first person singular has the -iō vocalism of Latin verbs for noises and cries, the first sense being “to go bubble-bubble”, then “to boil up”, especially of a hot spring.^[4]

The regular Old French infinitive was bolir or boulir; the palatal /ʎ/, which developed regularly in forms such as the imperfect and the present subjunctive, spread to the infinitive and the past participle and replaced the older forms.^[2][4][6] The singular of the present tense is regular, since the Latin stress fell on the first syllable of the verb.^[7]

Cognate with Italian bollire, Spanish bullir, Catalan bullir and Old Occitan bolir.^[4][2][7] Littré explains Walloon boûr as coming from a variant *bullō with the stress on the first syllable, a conjugation he places in the north of France.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the Chanson de Roland (1080), has the sense “to spurt out”: Dessouz le front lui buillit la cervelle “his brains spill out below his forehead”.^[8][7][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to spurt” went out of use in Old French.^[4] From about 1150 the verb meant “to bubble under the effect of heat”, of a liquid, and by metonymy of food cooked in it;^[4][8] it was soon used figuratively of a person in a state of excitement (1165–1170).^[4] In the Middle Ages it was also the word for the punishment of being boiled alive in a cauldron, as in the 14th-century sentence against a counterfeiter that Littré quotes.^[7][9]

The transitive use, “to bring to the boil”, has remained rare, French preferring the causative faire bouillir, which is felt as a transitive compound.^[4][9] The figurative avoir de quoi faire bouillir le pot, later la marmite, “to have enough to live on”, is found from the late 16th century.^[4][10] The verb is also used of a liquid that seethes without heat, such as wine fermenting in the vat.^[7][6] In Canadian French faire bouillir is used absolutely of boiling the washing or maple sap.^[9]

Timeline

• 1080 – The Chanson de Roland uses the verb (buillit) in the sense “to spurt out”.^[8][7]
• c. 1150 – It is used of a liquid boiling.^[4][8]
• 1165–1170 – First figurative use, of an excited person.^[4]
• 1584 – Faire bouillir le pot “to make a living” is found in Des Caurres.^[10]
• 1798 – The Académie records n'être bon ni à rôtir ni à bouillir.^[9]
• 1930 – Faire bouillir, used absolutely of washing or maple sap, is recorded in Canada.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of a liquid, to boil: to reach the temperature at which it bubbles and turns to vapour: L’eau du thé bout déjà.^[3][9][11]
2. (intransitive) Of food, to cook in boiling liquid: Les pommes de terre bouillent depuis dix minutes.^[3][6]
3. Faire bouillir: to boil something, to cook it, or to clean or sterilize it in boiling water: faire bouillir des haricots.^[9][3]
4. (figurative) To seethe, to be in a state of excitement, anger or impatience: bouillir de colère, avoir le sang qui bout dans les veines.^[9][6]
5. (figurative, familiar) Faire bouillir la marmite: to earn enough to keep a household.^[6][3]
6. (familiar) N'être bon ni à rôtir ni à bouillir: to be good for nothing.^[9][7]
7. (transitive, rare) To boil: bouillir du lait.^[9][1]

Word family

• bouillant
• bouilleur
• bouillerie
• bouillie
• bouilloire
• bouillon
• bouillonner
• bouillonnement
• bouillotte
• rebouillir

Related words

• bouillabaisse
• ébouillanter
• bulle
• ébullition
• bouilli
• Latin bulliō

Usage notes

The verb is irregular: je bous, nous bouillons, je bouillais, bouilli.^[11][7] Bouillir is intransitive in strict logic, and faire bouillir is the normal way to say “to boil something”; the transitive construction is rare.^[9][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 619a
6. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)