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boutefeu. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
boutefeu, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
boutefeu in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Borrowed from French boutefeu, from bouter (“to thrust, put”) + feu (“fire”).
Noun
boutefeu (plural boutefeus)
- (obsolete) An incendiary; an inciter of quarrels.
1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, , London: W Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:Animated by […] John a Chamber, a very boutefeu, […] they entered into open rebellion.
1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. , London: John Martyn and Henry Herringman, , published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:But we, who only do infuse / The rage in them like boutè-feus, / 'Tis our example that instils / In them th' infection of our ills.
Translations
French
Etymology
From bouter le feu.
Pronunciation
Noun
boutefeu m (plural boutefeux)
- linstock (stick for lighting cannon)
- (by extension) gunner
- fire-starter, arsonist
- (figurative) incendiary, firebrand
1972, Georges Brassens (lyrics and music), “Mourir pour des idées”, in Fernande:O vous, les boutefeux, ô vous les bons apôtres / Mourez donc les premiers, nous vous cédons le pas / Mais de grâce, morbleu ! laissez vivre les autres !- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (mining) blaster, shotfirer (person in charge of detonating explosives)
Further reading