bulvan

English

Noun

bulvan (plural bulvans)

1. (slang) A brute.
   • 1966, Jay Neugeboren, Big Man, page 56:

     Johnson there is old, but he is built like a bulvan! Under the boards, who would fight with him?

   • 2010, Jaimy Gordon, Lord of Misrule:

     It wasn't too late to get away, he could twist clear of the door or fall down in the gutter where he was, even a bulvan like Biggy—it was Biggy he saw over his shoulder—wouldn't shoot him in the street, not in Carbonport.

Romanian

Noun

bulvan m (plural bulvani)

1. alternative form of bălvan

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	bulvan	bulvanul	bulvani	bulvanii
genitive-dative	bulvan	bulvanului	bulvani	bulvanilor
vocative	bulvanule		bulvanilor

References

• Paliga, Sorin (2024), An Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language, New York: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 205

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from the Baltic languages. Compare with Latvian bulvāns (“decoy”) and Russian болван (bolvan, “dummy”).

Noun

bulvan c

1. (law) front, someone acting on behalf of someone else
2. decoy

Declension

Declension of bulvan

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	bulvan	bulvans
	definite	bulvanen	bulvanens
plural	indefinite	bulvaner	bulvaners
	definite	bulvanerna	bulvanernas

References

• “bulvan”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “bulvan”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “bulvan”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• bulvan in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)