buisine

Forms

buisine f (plural buisines)^[1] Also spelled busine and buisnie.^[2] Old French and Anglo-Norman spellings include busine, bosine and buisin.^[3][2] In the 16th century it was also written bouzine.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French buisine, inherited from Vulgar Latin *būcīna, an alteration of classical Latin būcina (“trumpet, horn”) in which the stress moved onto the suffix -īna.^[2][1][5] The Grand Robert also gives a popular Latin source.^[6] Rey calls the Old French word the evolved form of the Latin word, which French later borrowed in learned form as buccin (1372).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) for a trumpet sounded in battle: Si fait suner ses corns e ses buisines.^[2][7][1]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the buisine was the war trumpet sounded beside horns and drums in the epics and romances.^[7][1] The spelling busine appears about 1170 and was still in use in 1456, in Jehan de Saintré.^[2] In Middle French the word also named a pipe-like object, a kind of bellows: Froissart tells how a bronze buisine was put into an old man's bed to blow warm air on him (about 1375).^[8]

The word then fell out of use: dictionaries from the 17th to the 19th century rarely give it; from Furetière (1690) on, they call it an old word.^[2] Most 19th-century dictionaries list it as buisine.^[2] It survives as a historical term, as in Maurice Druon's La Louve de France (1959).^[2] Rey notes that the word came back in the 20th century as bousine or bouzine, taken from Norman with the sense “bagpipe” (1939) and used of a shrill instrument or a noisy machine.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Buisine appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• c. 1170 – The form busine is recorded.^[2]
• c. 1375 – Froissart uses it of a pipe that blows air, a kind of bellows.^[8]
• 1456 – Busine is still used in Jehan de Saintré.^[2]
• 16th century – The spelling bouzine is found.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière calls it an old word.^[2]
• 1939 – Bousine “bagpipe” is taken up from Norman.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A long medieval trumpet, used especially for military signals; a buccine.^[2][1]

Related words

• buccin
• buccine
• Latin būcina

Usage notes

The Treasury of the French Language treats buisine, busine and buisnie as spellings of one word, and Rey connects the modern bousine, bouzine (a noisy instrument or machine) with it.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f 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, 592a
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:1198
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf