burlesque

Pronunciation

• IPA: /byʁ.lɛsk/^[1]

Forms

burlesque (plural burlesques)^[1] Bourlesque, bourrelesque (1594), remade as burlesque after the Italian.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian burlesco, at first in “alla burlesca” (before 1566), taken over by ear and later respelled after the Italian.^{[2][4][3][1][5]} It is derived from burla (“joke, trick”),^[2][4][3][6] probably from Spanish burla (1330), which Wartburg traces to a popular Latin “*burula”, a diminutive of Late Latin burra (“wool, rough cloth”), the source of bure and bourre.^[2][4] Rey finds it hard to follow this path from the concrete to the abstract.^[2] Italian “burla” also gave the short-lived Middle French “bourle” “hoax” and “se burler” “to make fun” (1578).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Satire Ménippée (1594) contrasts the long, serious harangue of one speaker with the others, toutes courtes et burlesques.^[7][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word named the comic manner of Italian writers such as Berni, which treats noble subjects in low language.^[2][7] Between 1640 and 1660 it was a literary fashion in France, led by Scarron's Recueil de quelques vers burlesques (1643) and Virgile travesti (1648), and le burlesque became the name of the genre (1648); Boileau later left it to “the jesters of the Pont-Neuf”.^[2][6][7]

More generally burlesque means extravagantly comic, and then ridiculous and absurd.^[8][9] In the cinema le burlesque is slapstick comedy, and also from American English it also names a bawdy variety show (1935 in France; in Quebec from 1973).^{[8][3][10][6]}

Timeline

• before 1566 – Italian alla burlesca.^[2]
• 1578 – Se burler “to make fun”.^[2]
• 1594 – Bourlesque (Satire Ménippée).^[2][3]
• 1643–1648 – Scarron's burlesque poems.^[2]
• 1648 – Le burlesque, the genre.^[2]
• 1666 – The form burlesque.^[2][3]
• 1690 – Burlesquement.^[8]
• 1935 – The American variety show.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extravagantly comic; ludicrous, absurd.^[8][6]
2. (literature) Of the burlesque genre, which treats a noble subject in a low style.^[7][9]
3. Of a show or film mixing farce and slapstick.^[6]

Noun

1. Le burlesque: the burlesque genre; slapstick comedy in film.^[8][6]
2. The ludicrous side of something: le burlesque d'une situation.^[8]
3. An American bawdy variety show.^[6][10]

Related words

• grotesque
• bure
• English burlesque

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e 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, 646b
6. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b Poirier, Claude, et al. (2024), Dictionnaire historique du français québécois, 2nd ed., Trésor de la langue française au Québec, Université Laval, dhfq.org