bijou
See also: Bijou
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Noun[edit]
bijou (plural bijous or bijoux)
Etymology 2[edit]
Borrowed from Sabir bijou, ultimately from Occitan pichon (“small, little”), influenced by English bijou (“jewel”).[1]
Adjective[edit]
bijou (comparative more bijou, superlative most bijou)
- (Polari) small, little (often implying affection)
- 1968 Kenneth Horne, "Bona Prods" in: Round the Horne
- You may have vada'd one of our tiny bijou masterpiecettes, heartface.
- 1997, Ian Lucas, "The Color of His Eyes: Polari and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" in: Anna Livia, Kira Hall (editors), Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, page 91
- We, the Sister of Perpetual Indulgence and the Gathered Faithful, do hereby invoke the spirit of our beloved Muffin the Mule, to recognize the bona work of Mr. Derek Jarman in promulgating Universal Joy […] in his bijou masterpiecettes[.]
- 2012, Paul, "Bijou Polari Appette pre-varda’d" in: Gay History (05/08/2012)
- Polari, used for decades by gay men, actors, and theatre performers and which famously appeared on primetime radio show Round The Horne, has been brought up-to-date with a bijou iPhone appette.
- 1968 Kenneth Horne, "Bona Prods" in: Round the Horne
- (of a residence) small and elegant
- intricate; finely made
Quotations[edit]
- 1989, H. T. Willetts (translator), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (author), August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 126:
- In small towns like Soldau a small area accommodates the town hall, the church, several miniature squares, a monument to somebody or other, perhaps more than one, all sorts of shops, beerhouses, a post office, a bank, and there may be a bijou park behind wrought-iron railings, then the streets and the town end just as abruptly, and you have scarcely passed the last house when you find a highroad lined with trees stretching before you with a neat grid of precisely demarcated fields on either side.
Usage notes[edit]
Often used with -ette on the noun that it describes, as in the quotations given above, and bijou problemette.
References[edit]
- ^ Alan D. Corré, "Polari Words from Lingua Franca" in: A Glossary of Lingua Franca. 5th Edition, 2005
Czech[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
bijou
Dutch[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- byou (hyperforeignism)
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
bijou m (plural bijoux or bijous, diminutive bijoutje n)
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Breton bizoù (“ring”), from biz (“finger”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
bijou m (plural bijoux)
- a piece of jewelry
Usage notes[edit]
Only seven words in French ending in -ou have their plurals in -oux instead of -ous: bijou, caillou, chou, genou, hibou, joujou, pou.
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “bijou” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Categories:
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms borrowed from Sabir
- English terms derived from Sabir
- English terms derived from Occitan
- English adjectives
- English Polari slang
- en:Jewelry
- Czech terms with IPA pronunciation
- Czech non-lemma forms
- Czech verb forms
- Dutch terms borrowed from French
- Dutch terms derived from French
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch irregular nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -s
- French terms borrowed from Breton
- French terms derived from Breton
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French masculine nouns
- French countable nouns
- fr:Jewelry