bijou

See also: Bijou

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /biˈʒuː/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -uː

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French bijou.

Noun

bijou (plural bijous or bijoux)

1. A jewel.
2. A piece of jewelry; a trinket.
3. A small intricate piece of metalwork.
   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VI, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 102:

     […] a saucepan on the hob, and a brazen bijou over the fireplace designed for the suspension of a roasting-jack.

Related terms

• bijoutry

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Sabir bijou, ultimately from Occitan pichon (“small, little”), influenced by English bijou (“jewel”).

Adjective

bijou (comparative more bijou, superlative most bijou)

1. (Polari) small, little (often implying affection)
   • 1968, Kenneth Horne, Bona Prods (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 August 5, Paul, “Bijou Polari Appette pre-varda’d”, in Gay History‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 November 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.

2. (of a residence) small and elegant
   • 1891, A Scandal in Bohemia:

     I soon found Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open.

   • 1989 [1971], Willetts, H. T., transl., August 1914, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, translation of Август 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, →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.

3. intricate; finely made

Usage notes

Often used with -ette on the noun that it describes, as in the quotations given above, and bijou problemette.

Derived terms

• bijou problemette

Czech

Alternative forms

• bijí

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɪjou̯]
• Rhymes: -ɪjou̯
• Hyphenation: bi‧jou

Verb

bijou

1. third-person plural present indicative of bít

Dutch

Alternative forms

• byou (hyperforeignism)

Etymology

Borrowed from French bijou, from Breton bizoù.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biˈʒu/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bi‧jou
• Rhymes: -u

Noun

bijou m (plural bijoux or bijous, diminutive bijoutje n)

1. a piece of jewelry, often specifically with fake gems

Derived terms

• bijouterie

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Breton bizoù, bizou (“ring”), from biz (“finger”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.ʒu/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: bijoux
• Rhymes: -u

Noun

bijou m (plural bijoux)

1. a piece of jewelry

Usage notes

Only seven words in French ending in -ou have their plurals in -oux instead of -ous: bijou, caillou, chou, genou, hibou, joujou, pou.

Derived terms

• bijoux de famille

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: бижу́ (bižú)
• → Dutch: bijou
• → English: bijou
• → German: Bijou
• → Luxembourgish: Bijou
• → Neapolitan: bisciú

See also

• bijouterie
• bijoutier

Further reading

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