Etymologically
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burlesque

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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]

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