bougie

See also: Bougie

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbuːʒi/, enPR: bo͞oʹzhē

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːʒi

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French bougie (“wax candle”), after the Algerian city Bougie (Béjaïa), and the tapered, hand-dipped candles it made. The medical instruments were originally made from waxed linen.

Noun

bougie (plural bougies)

1. (medicine) A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie.
   • 2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 12,

     I was not too sure, as a child, what doctors "did," and glimpses of catheters and bougies in their kidney dishes, retractors and speculums, rubber gloves, catgut thread, and forecepts - all this, I think, rather frightened me, though it fascinated me too.

2. A wax candle.

Etymology 2

From bourgeoisie.

Adjective

bougie (comparative bougier, superlative bougiest)

1. (slang, usually derogatory) Behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status, middle-class / bourgeois people (sometimes carrying connotations of fakeness, elitism, or snobbery).
   • 1991 September 23, “Will Gets a Job”, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, season 2, episode 3:

     Hey, look, man, I haven't changed, I'm not gonna change and I'm not down with this bougie stuff.

   • 2007 October 12, L. Kent Wolgamott, “Satire pervades the series of fictional magazine covers”, in The Lincoln Journal Star‎^[1]:

     Called “bougie” when she was growing up, even though she’d never considered herself close to that, Ewing has turned the word around, using it as the title of a fictitious magazine she has dreamed up.

   • 2007, “Glamorous”, performed by Fergie:

     I'll be on the movie screens / Magazines and bougie scenes

   • 2010 February 1, “Gone With the Window”, in RuPaul's Drag Race, season 2, episode 1:

     Shangela is kind of bougie, but she's also your homegirl.

   • 2010, “Sleazy”, performed by Ke$ha:

     I don't need you or your brand new Benz / Or your bougie friends

   • 2023, “Outside”, performed by Br3nya:

     Bougie attitude, I'm from the West End / I want the finer things in life

   • 2024 March 6, Giles Yeo, “Why the double standards on ultra-processed foods? Because some have better PR than others”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Sure, you can go to a bougie bakery and purchase an artisanal sourdough without any additives that will cost much more and taste better than a supermarket loaf. But ultimately, bread is made from flour, salt, water and yeast.

2. (British, Canada, slang) Fancy or good-looking, without the same connotations of snobbery or pretentiousness as in sense 1.

Alternative forms

• bourgie, boojie, boujee

Synonyms

• chichi
• classy
• high and mighty
• ritzy
• saditty
• snobby
• snooty

Derived terms

• boughetto
• bougieness

Related terms

• bourgie

Noun

bougie (plural bougies)

1. (chiefly African-American Vernacular, slang, usually derogatory) A person who exhibits bougie behavior.
   • 1991 [1965], Nathan Hare, “Introduction”, in The Black Anglo-Saxons, page iii:

     All in all, Black Anglo-Saxons today remain a variegated group, and their numbers continue, relentlessly, to multiply. / In the late 1960's^{[sic – meaning 1960s]} following the first appearance of this book, The Black Anglo-Saxons, street militants and conscious members of the Black middle class popularly called them "bougies."

French

Etymology

From Bougie, the French name for the Algerian town of Béjaïa بجاية, formerly known for exporting candle wax. Attested 1300 for "fine candle wax", and 1493 for "candle made from such wax".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.ʒi/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

bougie f (plural bougies)

1. candle
2. spark plug

Derived terms

• bougeoir
• bougie à boule

Related terms

• chandelle
• cierge

Descendants

• → Catalan: bugia
• → English: bougie
• → Greek: μπουζί (bouzí)
• → Gulay: bùjì
• → Romanian: bujie
• → Spanish: bujía
• → Turkish: buji

Further reading

• “bougie”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• “bougie” in Dico en ligne Le Robert.