boudin

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French boudin. Doublet of pudding. Cf. also poutine.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /buːˈdæ̃/, /ˈbuː.dæ̃/
• (US) IPA^(key): /buˈdæ̃/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

boudin (plural boudins)

1. A kind of blood sausage in French, Belgian, Luxembourgish and related cuisines.
   • 1995, Frank Bradley, International Marketing Strategy, Prentice Hall PTR:

     Eurohucksters will find it difficult to wean the sausage lovers of Liége away from their bursting black Belgian boudins and toward Birmingham's humble bangers. Beer hawkers should fare no better.

   • 2002, Alan Davidson, The Penguin Companion to Food, Penguin Group USA, page 98:

     The principal French boudin competition is held every year at Mortagne-au-Perche in Normandy, attracting hundreds […]

   • 2017, Jonathan Meades, The Plagiarist in the Kitchen: A Lifetime's Culinary Thefts, Unbound Publishing, →ISBN:

     In general the softer, mousse-like texture of French boudins is the more appropriate in this instance.

2. A sausage in southern Louisiana Creole and Cajun cuisine, made from rice, ground pork (occasionally crawfish), and spices in a sausage casing.
3. A structure formed by boudinage: one or a series of elongated, sausage-shaped section(s) in rock.
   • 1968, I. M. Stevenson, A Geological Reconnaissance of Leaf River Map-area, New Quebec and Northwest Territories:

     Formation of boudins
     Although the shape of the greenstone bodies resembles in many ways that of boudins as described elsewhere (Cloos, 1946, 1947; Ramberg, 1955; Jones, 1959), the shape of the greenstone bodies is believed to be ...

   • 1986, David P. Gold, Carbonatites, Diatremes, and Ultra-alkaline Rocks in the Oka Area, Quebec: May 22-23, 1986:

     However, discordant dykes, locally disrupted in boudins, attest to both late dykes and post-crystallization movement of the carbonate rocks. Some of those boudins are interpreted as immiscible silicate blebs in carbonatitic melt […]

   • 1994, A. Thomas, Nicholas Culshaw, Kenneth L. Currie, Geological Survey of Canada, Geology of the Lac Ghyvelde-Lac Long Area, Labrador and Quebec:

     Small bodies of mafic to ultramafic rocks occur as boudins or sills up to 7 km long within the gneiss.

   • 1995, Northeastern Geology and Environmental Sciences:

     The blocks do not penetrate the leucogneiss foliation that surrounds them, and the result is a single boudin with a composite core.

Derived terms

• boudin blanc
• boudin noir

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French boudin, from Old French boudin, of uncertain origin. Possibly from a root *bod- (“swollen”), possibly from Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European *bed- (“to swell”) (Pok. 96), from *bʰew- (“to swell”) (Pok. 98-102). This would suggest a connection with Proto-Germanic *paddǭ (“toad”).

The derivation from Vulgar *botellinus, from botellus (“small sausage”), the diminutive form of botulus (“sausage, black pudding; intestine”) is disputed on phonological grounds; as the outcome of botellus is Old French boel (> modern boyau), this may instead require a Vulgar Latin *bolet(t)inus for boudin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.dɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

boudin m (plural boudins)

1. (approximately) blood sausage, black pudding
2. (inflatable) tube, ring
3. (colloquial, derogatory) fatty, lardarse
   • 1984, Jacques Sadoul, La chute de la maison Spencer, J'ai Lu, page 70:

     Bof ! c’est peut-être ma tante, mais c’est un gros boudin quand même.

     Humph! She may be my aunt, but she's still a fatso.

4. (colloquial, derogatory) ugly person (not necessarily obese)
   • 1991, Marc Zmirov, Julia:

     Alors que n’importe quel boudin peut se faire n’importe quel type.

     While any uggo can screw whatever guy she wants.

Derived terms

• boudin blanc
• boudin noir
• faire du boudin: see bouder (“to sulk”)
• caca boudin

Descendants

• → English: boudin

Further reading

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