English

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

Anagrams

• obround

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/
• 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

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