Borrowed fromFrenchbougie(“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 The medical instruments were originally made from waxed linen.Doublet ofbugia.
bougie (pluralbougies)
- (medicine) Ataperedcylindricalinstrument for introducing an object into atubularanatomicalstructure, or todilate such a structure, as with anesophageal bougie.
1866, “Don Leon”, inDon Leon ; A Poem by the Late Lord Byron, Author of Childe Harold, Don Juan, &c., &c. and forming part of the private journal of His Lordship, supposed to have been entirely destoyed by Thos. Moore. To which is added Leon to Annabella; An epistle from Lord Byron to Lady Byron.[1] (Poetry),→OCLC,pages44, 51–52:"There, as my lord, with achromatic glass, / "O'erlooks St. James's Park, and on the grass, / "Beneath his mansion's half-closed window spies / "Two crouching urchins' gross obscenities, / "He turns his eager gaze, adjusts the screw, / "And brings their unwashed nudities in view. / "That spot, concealed by two o'er hanging hills, / "Foul sweat and fœtid excrement distils, / "Yet frowsy, there the pipe-clayed soldier sports, / "And bishops hold episcopalian courts. / "'Tis there the Bath empiric's finger guides, / "The oiledbougie ; and as the dildo slides / "Besmeared, to meet last night's descending meal, / "Oft makes the strictures he pretends to heal.- Whoever has visited Bath must have heard of a surgeon, by the name of Hicks, who pretends to cure strictures in the rectum by the insertion ofbougies of enormous dimensions up the anus in male and female patients. The morning meetings of ten or a dozen persons of both sexes, all waiting to undergo the same mode of cure (for he never fails to discover stricture or tendency to stricture, in all those persons who consult him), must be ludicrous and somewhat obscene. Why does he not follow the plan of Enothea, a harlot spoken of by Petronius? "Profert Enothea scorteum fascinum, quod, ut oleo et minuto pipere atque urticæ trito circumdedit semine, paulatim cœpit insere ano meo." It may not be amiss to observe that thefascinum (Gallicegodmiché, Anglicedildo) was a substitute for the human penis, known to the ancients as well as to the moderns.
- 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 andbougies 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.
- Awax candle.
Frombourgeoisie.
bougie (comparativebougier,superlativebougiest)
- (slang, usually derogatory) Behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status,middle-class /bourgeois people(sometimes carrying connotations offakeness, elitism, or snobbery).
- Synonyms:chichi,classy,high and mighty,ritzy,saditty,snobby,snooty,posh
1991 September 23, “Will Gets a Job”, inThe 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 thisbougie stuff.
2007 October 12, L. Kent Wolgamott, “Satire pervades the series of fictional magazine covers”, inThe Lincoln Journal Star[2]: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 byFergie:I'll be on the movie screens / Magazines andbougie scenes
2010 February 1, “Gone With the Window”, inRuPaul's Drag Race, season 2, episode 1:Shangela is kind ofbougie, but she's also your homegirl.
2010, “Sleazy”, performed byKe$ha:I don't need you or your brand new Benz / Or yourbougie 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”, inThe Guardian[3],→ISSN:Sure, you can go to abougie 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.
2025 August 2, Cathy Hawker, “How bougie is your high street?”, inFT Weekend, House & Home, page 1:But if the mix is no longer about life's essentials, and instead a new wave of chichi cafés, artisan bakers and fancy nail bars—are we right to ask, not how useful is your high street, but howbougie?
2025 August 6, Julie Creswell, “Aldi’s Passionate, Cultlike Following Fuels Its Rapid Expansion Plans”, inThe New York Times[4]:“The prices. I can’t comprehend how low the prices are for the quality, organic foods that they sell,” Mrs. Ortiz said. “It feels like I’m at abougie store, but I’m not payingbougie prices.”
- (British, Canada, slang)Fancy orgood-looking, without the same connotations of snobbery or pretentiousness as in sense 1.
- Spanish:de postín,ficho (es),fichudo(Central America),bucloso,popof(Latin America),fufu(El Salvador),cheto (es),fresa (es),pijo (es),fresón (es),pituco (es),fufurufo,fifí (es),burgués (es),pseudoburgués,concheto (es),siútico (es),fufú (es)
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bougie (pluralbougies)
- (chiefly African-American Vernacular, slang, usually derogatory) A person who exhibits bougie behavior.
1991 [1965],Nathan Hare, “Introduction”, inThe Black Anglo-Saxons, page iii:All in all, Black Anglo-Saxons today remain avariegated group, and their numbers continue, relentlessly, to multiply. / In the late 1960's[sic – meaning1960s] following the first appearance of this book,The Black Anglo-Saxons, street militants and conscious members of theBlack middle class popularly called them "bougies."
bougie (pluralbougies)
- Alternative spelling ofbowjy(“shed for cattle or sheep”).
FromBougie, the French name for the Algerian town ofBéjaïaبجاية, formerly known for exporting candle wax.Attested 1300 for "fine candle wax", and 1493 for "candle made from such wax".
bougie f (pluralbougies)
- candle
- spark plug
