bourre

Forms

bourre f (plural bourres)^[1] Old French borre, later boure.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French borre, inherited from Late Latin burra (“coarse cloth with long hairs”), recorded in the 5th and 6th centuries, and earlier, from the 4th century, in a figurative sense, “trifles”.^[2][3][4][5] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: it may be the feminine of the adjective burrus (“red”) used as a noun.^[2][3] Rey takes the adjective from a Greek word for “reddish”, perhaps through Etruscan.^[3]

Cognate with Italian borra, Spanish borra and Old Occitan borra.^[4][3] The French word bure is related.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Étienne de Fougères's Livre des manières (1174–1178) has borre for the coarsest part of wool.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the waste of a fibre, especially of wool, then of silk (boure de soie, 1280).^[2][3] By extension it named the hair scraped from the hides of short-haired animals before tanning, used to stuff harness (Étienne Boileau, 1268–1271), and other textile waste used as stuffing.^[2][3]

From the 17th century gunsmiths used it for the wad holding the charge of a firearm (Aubigné, 1618).^[2][3] Furetière (1690) records it for the down of a vine bud and, figuratively, for the worthless padding in a piece of prose or verse, a sense since lost.^[2][3] The familiar phrase de première bourre “first-rate” may come from the language of upholsterers, or from the verb bourrer.^[3]

Timeline

• 1174–1178 – Borre “coarse part of wool” is first recorded.^[2]
• 1268–1271 – Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers uses it for animal hair stuffing harness.^[2]
• 1280 – Boure de soie “silk waste” appears.^[2]
• 1618 – Aubigné uses it for the wad of a firearm.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the senses “down of a vine bud” and “padding in a text”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Hair taken from the hides of short-haired animals before tanning, used to stuff harness and saddles and to make feutre.^[6][2]
2. Waste from combing or spinning wool, silk or cotton: bourre de laine, bourre de soie.^[6][7][1]
3. Any material used for stuffing a seat, a mattress or a cushion.^[8][1]
4. A wad holding the charge in a firearm or a cartridge.^[8][7][1]
5. The down covering the buds of some plants.^[7][1]
6. Se tirer la bourre (familiar): to compete hard for first place.^[6]
7. De première bourre (familiar): first-rate.^[3]

Word family

• bourrelet
• bourrer
• bourru
• débourrer
• rembourrer
• ébouriffé
• bourrelier

Related words

• bure
• Latin burra

Usage notes

Bourre “policeman” (1910) is another word, from bourrique “police agent” (1877) or from bourrer “to beat”;^[9] Wiktionary marks it as dated slang.^[1] Être à la bourre “to be late, be pressed for time” (early 20th century) has a third word, also from bourrer.^[6][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 637b
6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert