French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle French bouc (male goat), from Old French buc (male goat), from Latin buccus, perhaps from the confluence of Frankish *bukk (male goat)[1] (compare Old Dutch buck (male goat)), from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz, *bukkô (male goat), and Gaulish *bukkos (male goat)[2] (compare Middle Breton bouch (goat), Old Cornish boch (goat), Old Irish boc (buck)), from Proto-Celtic *bukkos (goat), both from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (goat, buck, ram). More at buck.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /buk/
  • Audio; un bouc:(file)

Noun

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bouc m (plural boucs, feminine chèvre)

  1. billy goat
    • 1845, Hans Christian Andersen, La Bergère et le Ramoneur:
      Au milieu de l’armoire on voyait sculpté un homme d’une singulière apparence : il ricanait toujours, car on ne pouvait pas dire qu’il riait. Il avait des jambes de bouc, de petites cornes à la tête et une longue barbe. Les enfants l’appelaient le Grand-général-commandant-en-chef-Jambe-de-Bouc, nom qui peut paraître long et difficile, mais titre dont peu de personnes ont été honorées jusqu’à présent.
      In the middle of the wardrobe was a sculpture of a man with a peculiar appearance. He was always sneering – you couldn't call it laughing. He had the legs of a goat, little horns on his head and a long beard. The children called him Grand-General-Commander-in-Chief-Goat-Legs. The name may seem long and difficult, but very few people have been honoured with that title until now.
  2. goatee
    Synonym: barbiche f

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ Gilles Ménage (1750) Dictionnaire étymologique de la Langue Française[1]
  2. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 83

Further reading

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Middle Dutch

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Noun

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bouc

  1. Alternative spelling of boec

Middle French

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Etymology

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Old French buc, boc; see above.

Noun

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bouc m (plural boucs)

  1. male goat