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bourdaloue

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Etymology and origin of the French word bourdaloue

Confidence
Established
Formation
Eponym
First attested
1685 notarial records of Bénigne Basset, Montreal More words from the 17th century
Ultimate origin
French Bourdaloue

Forms

bourdaloue m, also bourdalou[1][2][3] Feminine in its first records, masculine from the Académie's edition of 1798;[1] Bescherelle (1845) uses bourdaloue for the hat band and the cloth.[1]

Etymology

It is from French the surname of Louis Bourdaloue (1632–1704), a Jesuit and the most popular preacher at the court of Louis XIV.[1][4][2] The hat band was named, according to the Trévoux dictionary (1752), because the preacher wore one.[1] The reason for the chamber pot is less clear: an allusion to the confessions the preacher heard,[1][5] or an ironic allusion to the long waits his lengthy sermons imposed on his hearers.[4] Littré connects the cheap cloth with his sermons against luxury, and calls the naming a whim of fashion.[6] No known story lies behind its use for a pastry.[4] The Petit Robert explains the surname as an alteration of Bourg d'Alloue, the name of a village in Charente, from Gaulish alauda (“lark”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest known record is in Canadian French, in a Montreal notarial deed of 1685 listing Trente Cinq Aunes & demye de Bourdalou Noir, thirty-five and a half ells of black hat ribbon.[8][4] In France it is first found in Furetière in 1701, as a feminine noun for a ribbon or braid fastened with a buckle around a hat.[1][4]

Semantic evolution

The hat band is the oldest sense;[8] Balzac writes of a chapeau rond à bourdaloue noir in 1842.[8] From 1831 it is used of the leather band around the base of a military shako.[8][1] In 1762 the Académie recorded it for a small oblong chamber pot used by women.[1][4][3] Richelet also used it for a kind of worked linen made near Caen, and Littré lists bourdaloue as an obsolete cheap cloth.[6][1] Later it became the name of a hot dessert of fruit laid on frangipane and sprinkled with crushed macaroons.[4][9]

Timeline

  • 1685 – A Montreal deed lists Bourdalou Noir among goods.[8]
  • 1701 – Furetière records it, as a feminine noun, for the hat band.[1][4]
  • 1752 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux links the hat band with the preacher.[1]
  • 1762 – The Académie records the sense “chamber pot”.[1][4]
  • 1798 – The Académie makes it masculine.[1]
  • 1831 – Used for the leather band of a shako.[8]
  • 1842 – The Académie's Complément enters bourdaloue as a feminine noun for a cloth.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A ribbon or braid, fastened with a buckle, around the crown of a hat: un feutre gris à bourdaloue noir.[1][9][3]
  2. (military) A leather band around the base of a shako.[1][8]
  3. (historical) A small oblong chamber pot used by women in the 18th century.[9][3][4]
  4. (cooking) A dessert of fruit, especially pears, with frangipane: tarte bourdaloue.[9][4][10]
  5. (obsolete) A kind of inexpensive cloth.[6]

Usage notes

The GLLF has a separate bourdaloue, a levelling mark fixed at the foot of some houses that gives their exact height above sea level, named after Bourdaloue, a 19th-century geodesist.[11] The Wiktionnaire explains the pastry by the rue Bourdaloue in Paris, where its maker had his shop.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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
  2. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 472b
  6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
  11. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
Cite this entry

“Bourdaloue.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/bourdaloue. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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