bacon

See also: bacón, Bacon, and bà con

English

Etymology

From Middle English bacon (“meat from the back and sides of a pig”), from Anglo-Norman bacon, bacun (“ham, flitch, strip of lard”), from Old Low Frankish *bakō (“ham, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *bakô, *bakkô (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhAg- (“back, buttocks”). Cognate with Old High German bahho, bacho (“back, ham, side of bacon”) (compare Alemannic German Bache, Bachen), Old Saxon baco (“back”), Dutch bake (“side of bacon, ham”), Old English bæc (“back”). More at back.

Pronunciation

• enPR: bā'kən, IPA^(key): /ˈbeɪ.kən/
• Rhymes: -eɪkən
• Homophone: bakin' (US)

Noun

Raw belly bacon or streaky bacon, usually referred to simply as bacon in the US

Raw back bacon, usually referred to simply as bacon in the UK

bacon (usually uncountable, plural bacons)

1. Cured meat from the sides, belly, or back of a pig.
   • 2006, Pruess, Joanna, Seduced by Bacon, The Lyons Press, →ISBN, page 93:

     They fried the fish with bacon and were astonished, for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before.

   • 2009 March 31, Casey, Laura, “Piggin' out on bacon at S.F.'s BaconCamp”, in San Jose Mercury News‎^[1], retrieved 2010-10-19:

     For us the pig's the means, while bacon is the end / Providing gustatory heights to which we can ascend.

   • 2009 August 12, Abraham, Lisa, “Bacon comes home - Old favorite tastes even better when you do the curing yourself”, in Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio, page D1:

     Bacon is something that everybody is familiar with and most people grew up eating. It has a comfort aspect to it and a familiarity. It's also got an addictive aspect to it - that sweet and salty combination of flavors. And it's probably just a little bit unhealthy for you. When you get to have bacon, it's exciting and something you look forward to.

2. Thin slices of the above in long strips.
3. (slang, derogatory) The police.

   Run! It's the bacon!

4. (cycling, slang) Road rash.

Usage notes

In the UK, the word bacon on its own usually refers specifically to loin or back bacon (similar to the US Canadian bacon). In the US, bacon usually refers to side or belly bacon (referred to as streaky bacon in the UK).

Synonyms

• (Cut of meat from a pig): ham, pork

Derived terms

Terms derived from bacon

• a good voice to beg bacon
• bacon and cabbage
• bacon fed
• bacon-faced
• bacon grease
• bacon rind
• bacony
• back bacon
• bring home the bacon

• Canadian bacon
• cottage bacon
• get the bacon bad
• peameal bacon
• Irish bacon
• save someone's bacon
• side bacon
• streaky bacon
• turkey bacon
• whale bacon

Related terms

• back

Descendants

• Finnish: pekoni

Translations

cut of meat

• Arabic: بَاكُون‎‎ m (bākūn), بَيْكُون‎‎ m (baykūn)
• Armenian: բեկոն (hy) (bekon)
• Belarusian: беко́н m (bjekón)
• Bengali: বেকন (bekôn)
• Bulgarian: бекон m (bekon)
• Burmese: ဘေကွန် (bhe-kwan)
• Catalan: cansalada f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 煙肉,烟肉 (jin¹ juk⁶)

  Mandarin: 熏鹹肉, 熏咸肉 (xūn xiánròu), 培根 (zh) (péigēn), 熏肉 (xūnròu), 鹹肉 (zh), 咸肉 (zh) (xiánròu)

• Cornish: kig mogh m
• Czech: slanina (cs) f
• Danish: flæsk n
• Dutch: bacon (nl) m
• Esperanto: lardo (eo)
• Estonian: peekon (et)
• Finnish: kylki (fi)
• French: lard (fr) m, lardon (fr) m
• Galician: touciño (gl) m, panceta (gl) f, lardo m, cebullo m
• Georgian: ბეკონი (beḳoni)
• German: Speck (de) m
• Greek: μπέικον (el) n (béikon)
• Hebrew: קותל חזיר‎‎ m (kótel ḥazzír), קָתְלֵי חֲזִיר‎‎ (he) m pl (kotléy ḥazzír)
• Hindi: बेकन (bekan)
• Icelandic: flesk (is) n, beikon (is) n
• Ido: lardo (io)
• Indonesian: daging babi asap, daging asap (id)
• Irish: bagún m, muiceoil shaillte f
• Italian: pancetta (it) f
• Japanese: ベーコン (ja) (bēkon)
• Kazakh: бекон (bekon)
• Khmer: សាច់បីជាន់ (sac bəy coan), សាច់ជ្រូកបីជាន់ (sac cruuk bəy coan), សាច់ជ្រូកខ្វៃ (sac cruuk kvay)
• Korean: 베이컨 (beikeon)
• Kyrgyz: бекон (bekon)
• Latin: laridum
• Latvian: speķis m

• Lithuanian: bekonas m
• Macedonian: сланина f (slanina)
• Malay: bakon, dendeng babi
• Maltese: bejken
• Maori: pēkana
• Mongolian: утсан гахайн мах (utsan gahajn mah)
• Navajo: bisóodi, bisóodi bitsįʼ niheeshchʼiizhígíí
• North Frisian: speek
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: (røykt) flesk n, bacon (no) n

  Nynorsk: (røykt) flesk n, bacon n

• Old English: spiċ n
• Persian: بیکن‎‎ (beyken), لارد‎‎ (lârd)
• Polish: boczek (pl) m, bekon (pl) m
• Portuguese: toucinho defumado, bacon (pt) m
• Romanian: bacon (ro) n, slănină (ro) f, lard (ro)
• Romansch: charnpiertg f
• Russian: беко́н (ru) m (bekón), ветчина́ (ru) f (vetčiná) (ham)
• Scottish Gaelic: feòil-mhuice f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сланина f

  Roman: slanina (sh) f

• Sinhalese: බේකන් (bēkan)
• Slovak: slanina f
• Slovene: slanina (sl) f
• Spanish: tocino (es) m, (Cuba, Spain) beicon m, (Colombia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela) tocineta f, (Argentina, Uruguay) panceta ahumada f, bacón (es) m
• Swedish: bacon (sv) n
• Thai: เบคอน (bee-kɔ̂n)
• Turkish: domuz pastırması
• Ukrainian: беко́н (uk) m (bekón)
• Urdu: بیکن‎‎ (bekan)
• Uzbek: bekon
• Volapük: pined (vo), (pig) svinapined, (cattle) bubapined
• Welsh: cig moch (cy), bacwn m
• Yiddish: שפּעק‎‎ m (shpek)

thin slice of pork

• Bulgarian: бекон (bekon)
• Finnish: pekoni (fi)
• Galician: gulerpa f
• Greek: μπέικον (el) n (béikon)
• Hebrew: קותל חזיר‎‎ m (kótel ḥazzír)
• Maori: pēkana
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bacon (no) n

  Nynorsk: bacon n

• Old English: spiċ n
• Spanish: tocino (es) m
• Swedish: bacon (sv) n
• Turkish: jambon (tr)

See also

• flitch
• gammon
• guanciale
• hock
• pancetta
• green, in the sense of unsmoked
• smoked
• hog
• porcine
• rasher
• slab
• sow
• swine
• bacon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Bonac, banco

---

French

Etymology

1899, "thin, smoked lard", from English bacon, from Middle English bacon (“meat from the back and sides of a pig”), from Old French bacon, bacun (“ham, strip of lard”), from Frankish *bakkō, from Proto-Germanic *bakō, *baką, *bakaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhAg- (“back, buttocks”). Cognate with Old High German bahho, bacho (“back, ham, side of bacon”), Old Saxon baco (“back”), Dutch bake (“side of bacon, ham”), Old English bæc (“back”). More at back.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /be.kɔn/, /be.kœn/

• audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• audio (France, Normandie)

  (file)

Noun

bacon m (uncountable)

1. bacon

Further reading

• “bacon” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

---

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛkon/

Noun

bacon m (invariable)

1. bacon

Synonyms

• pancetta

---

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːkən/, /bæjkən/
• Rhymes: -eːkən, -æjkən

Noun

bacon n (definite singular baconet)

1. bacon

References

• “bacon” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

---

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːkən/, /bæjkən/
• Rhymes: -eːkən, -æjkən

Noun

bacon n (definite singular baconet)

1. bacon

References

• “bacon” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

---

Old French

Alternative forms

• bacon, bacun, bacoun

Noun

bacon m (oblique plural bacons, nominative singular bacons, nominative plural bacon)

1. bacon, salted pork, ham, shank (of a pig)

Descendants

• Middle French: bacon
• Picard: bacôn (Athois)
• → Middle English: bacoun, bacon
  • English: bacon
    • → French: bacon (reborrowing)
    • → Italian: beicon
    • → Norwegian Bokmål: beicon
    • → Portuguese: beicon
    • → Spanish: beicon
    • → Swedish: bacon

---

Portuguese

Etymology

From English bacon.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbej.kõ/

Noun

bacon m (plural bacons)

1. bacon (cured meat from the belly, sides or back of a pig)

See also

• toucinho

---

Spanish

Noun

bacon m (plural bacons)

1. bacon

---

Swedish

Etymology

From English bacon.

Noun

bacon n

1. bacon

Declension

Declension of bacon
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	bacon	baconet	—	—
Genitive	bacons	baconets	—	—