bidet

See also: Bidet

English

A bidet.

Etymology

Borrowed from French bidet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbiːdeɪ/
  • Rhymes: -iːdeɪ
  • Homophone: b-day
• (US) IPA^(key): /bɪˈdeɪ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -eɪ

Noun

bidet (plural bidets)

1. A low-mounted plumbing fixture or type of sink intended for washing the external genitalia and the anus.

   Near-synonym: washlet (sometimes synonymous)

2. (obsolete) A small horse formerly allowed to each trooper or dragoon for carrying his baggage.
   • 1631, Ben Jonson, Chloridia:

     For joy of which I will return to myself, mount my bidet in a dance

Derived terms

• Bidet
• bidet shower
• bidet spray
• bidet sprayer

Translations

low-mounted plumbing fixture for cleaning the genitalia and anus

• Arabic: شَطَّاف m (šaṭṭāf), شَطَّافَة f (šaṭṭāfa), مرحضة (ar)

  Hijazi Arabic: بديه m (bidē), بيديه m (bīdē)

• Bashkir: биде (bedi)
• Belarusian: бідэ́ n (bidé)
• Breton: bidochenn (br) f
• Bulgarian: биде́ n (bidé)
• Catalan: bidet (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 坐浴桶 (co⁵ juk⁶ tung²)

  Mandarin: 坐浴桶 (zuòyùtǒng), 坐浴盤 / 坐浴盘 (zuòyùpán), 智能廁板 / 智能厕板 (zhìnéng cèbǎn)

• Czech: bidet (cs) m
• Danish: bidet (da) c
• Dutch: bidet (nl) m or n
• Esperanto: bideo
• Finnish: bidee (fi), pesuistuin, alapesuallas
• French: bidet (fr) m
• Galician: bidé m
• German: Bidet (de) n
• Greek: μπιντές (el) m (bintés)
• Hebrew: בִּידֵה (he) m
• Hungarian: bidé (hu)
• Icelandic: skolskál f
• Ido: bideto (io)
• Italian: bidè (it) m, bidet (it) m
• Japanese: ビデ (ja) (bide)
• Korean: 비데 (bide)
• Latvian: bidē m
• Lithuanian: bidė f
• Luxembourgish: Bidet m
• Macedonian: биде́ n (bidé)
• Maltese: bidè m
• Norman: bidet m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bidet (no) n

  Nynorsk: bidet n

• Persian: بیده (fa) (bide)
• Polish: bidet (pl) m
• Portuguese: bidê (pt) m, bidé (pt) m
• Romanian: bideu (ro) n
• Russian: биде́ (ru) n (bidɛ́)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бѝде̄ n

  Latin: bìdē (sh) n

• Sicilian: bidè m
• Slovak: bidet m
• Slovene: bide m
• Spanish: bidé (es) m, bidet (es) m
• Swedish: bidé (sv) c
• Turkish: bide (tr), taharet musluğu
• Ukrainian: біде́ n (bidé)

Anagrams

• betid, bited, debit

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from French bidet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɪdɛt]
• Hyphenation: bi‧det

Noun

bidet m inan

1. bidet

Declension

Declension of bidet (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	bidet	bidety
genitive	bidetu	bidetů
dative	bidetu	bidetům
accusative	bidet	bidety
vocative	bidete	bidety
locative	bidetu	bidetech
instrumental	bidetem	bidety

Further reading

• “bidet”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “bidet”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

French

Etymology

From Middle French bider (“to trot”), of unknown ultimate origin, +‎ -et. Possibly related to Medieval Italian bidetto (“small horse”), itself probably related to Proto-West Germanic *biti (“bite; horse's bit”); or, possibly from a lost Middle French rabider (“go quickly, violently”), a descendant of Latin rabidus (“furious, fierce”), with loss of the initial prefix.

Modern sense derives from analogy with the straddling of a bidet and the straddling of a small horse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.dɛ/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

bidet m (plural bidets)

1. pony, small horse
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[3], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères:

     Il mit sa main devant ses yeux; et il aperçut à l'horizon un enclos de murs où des arbres, çà et là, faisaient des bouquets noirs entre des pierres blanches, puis il continua sa route, au petit trot, car son bidet boitait.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. bidet

Descendants

• → English: bidet (see there for further descendants)
• → Greek: μπιντές (bintés)
• → Polish: bidet
• → Portuguese: bidê, bidé (Portugal)
• → Persian: بیده (bide)
• → Turkish: bide

Further reading

• “bidet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• débit

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

bidet m (plural bidets)

1. (Jersey) pony
2. (Jersey) bidet

Synonyms

• (pony): pônîn, p'tit j'va

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from French bidet. First attested in 1819.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbi.dɛt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -idɛt
• Syllabification: bi‧det

Noun

bidet m inan (diminutive bidecik)

1. bidet (low-mounted plumbing fixture for cleaning the genitalia and anus)

Declension

Declension of bidet

	singular	plural
nominative	bidet	bidety
genitive	bidetu	bidetów
dative	bidetowi	bidetom
accusative	bidet	bidety
instrumental	bidetem	bidetami
locative	bidecie	bidetach
vocative	bidecie	bidety

Derived terms

adjective

• bidetowy

Further reading

• “bidet”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[4] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “bidet”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[5] (in Polish)

Slovak

Etymology

Derived from French bidet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bidet/, [ˈbidet]
• Rhymes: -idet
• Hyphenation: bi‧det

Noun

bidet m inan (relational adjective bidetový)

1. bidet

Declension

Declension of bidet
(pattern dub)

	singular	plural
nominative	bidet	bidety
genitive	bidetu	bidetov
dative	bidetu	bidetom
accusative	bidet	bidety
locative	bidete	bidetoch
instrumental	bidetom	bidetmi

Further reading

• “bidet”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biˈdet/ [biˈð̞et̪]
• Rhymes: -et
• Syllabification: bi‧det

Noun

bidet m (plural bidets)

1. alternative form of bidé

Further reading

• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “bidet”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA
• bidet | Diccionario • DELE Ahora