bourdon

See also: Bourdon

English

Etymology

Borrowing 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

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. CE 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 errupt, 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: -dɔ̃

Noun

bourdon m (plural bourdons)

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

Derived terms

• faux-bourdon
• bourdonner
• bourdonnement

Further reading

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

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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”)