bourdon

See also: Bourdon

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French bourdon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʊədən/

Noun

bourdon (plural bourdons)

1. (music, archaic) The burden or bass of a melody.
   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     The earth tremors resumed and made a bourdon to the loud psalms that they sang, interspersed with the odd ode of Horace recited by Silas.

2. The drone pipe of a bagpipe.
3. The lowest-pitched stop of an organ.
   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage 2007, p. 5:

     The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.

4. The lowest-pitched bell of a carillon.
5. A large, low-pitched bell not part of a diatonically tuned ring of bells.
6. A bumblebee, genus Bombus.
7. A pilgrim's staff.

Translations

music: burden or bass

drone pipe of a bagpipe

• Finnish: bordunapilli (fi)

lowest pitched stop of an organ

lowest pitched peal of bells

bumblebee — see bumblebee

Anagrams

• obround

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French

Etymology

From Middle French bourdon (“honeybee, bumblebee”), from Old French bordon (“bumblebee, drone, beetle, insect”), from Medieval Latin burdo (c. C.E. 1000), first recorded in the Homilies of King Ælfric, glossed by Old English dora (“bumblebee”). Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Frankish *bordo, *burdo (“beetle, insect”), from Proto-Germanic *buzdô (“beetle, grub", literally, "swelling”), from *būs- (“to erupt, burst, flow rapidly”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūs- (“to move quickly”), related to Old English budda (“beetle”), Middle Low German buddech (“thick, swollen”), Low German budde (“louse, grub”). See bug.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buʁ.dɔ̃/

• bourdon

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔ̃

Noun

bourdon m (plural bourdons)

1. bumblebee (species of bee)
2. (music) drone
3. (figuratively, colloquial) blues (feeling of sadness)

   Synonym: cafard

   • 1999, Anna Gavalda, “Permission”, in Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part, →ISBN:

     Je me souviens qu'il écrivait ça à un de ses copains qui avait le bourdon et qui voulait voyager. L'autre lui disait grosso modo que c'était pas la peine étant donné qu'il allait se trimballer son paquet d'emmerdements avec lui.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

Derived terms

• faux-bourdon
• bourdonner
• bourdonnement

Further reading

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

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Louisiana Creole French

Etymology

From French bourdon (“bee”).

Noun

bourdon

1. bee, wasp

References

• Alcée Fortier, Louisiana Folktales

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Norman

Etymology

From Old French bordon (“bumblebee, drone, beetle, insect”), from Medieval Latin burdo.

Noun

bourdon m (plural bourdons)

1. (Jersey) bumblebee

Synonyms

• bourde

Derived terms

Derived terms

• bourdon à j'va (“botfly”)
• bourdon à myi (“honeybee”)

• bourdonner (“to buzz”)