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Webster 1913 Edition

Burgeon

Bur′geon

,
Verb.
I.
To bud. See
Bourgeon
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Burgeon

BURGEON.

[See Bourgeon.]

Definition 2024

burgeon

burgeon

English

Noun

burgeon ‎(plural burgeons)

  1. (obsolete) A bud, sprout, shoot.

Translations

Verb

burgeon ‎(third-person singular simple present burgeons, present participle burgeoning, simple past and past participle burgeoned)

  1. (intransitive) To grow or expand.
    Gradually, the town burgeoned into a thriving city.
  2. (intransitive) To swell to the point of bursting.
  3. (intransitive, archaic) Of plants, to bloom, bud.

Derived terms

Synonyms

Translations

Etymology

From Middle English burjon, burioun ‎(“shoot, bud”), from Anglo-Norman burjun, burgeon, burgon (compare Old French burjon ‎(“a bud”)), from Old Frankish *burjo ‎(“sprout, offshoot, descendant”), from Proto-Germanic *burjô ‎(“sprout, descendant, offshoot”), from Proto-Germanic *burjaną ‎(“to raise up”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-, *bʰrē- ‎(“to bear”). Compare Albanian buron ‎(“sprout, spring, gush out”), Old High German burjan ‎(“to push up, raise”), Old English byrian ‎(“to come up, occur”), Old English byre ‎(“child, son, descendant”). More at bear.

Alternate etymology derives Old French burjon ‎(“bud”) from Vulgar Latin *burrionem, accusative of *burrio, from Late Latin burra ‎(“wool, fluff”) (presumably from the down covering certain buds).

Pronunciation

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