burgeon
UK /ˈbɜː.d͡ʒən/ · US /ˈbɝː.d͡ʒən/ noun, verb
Forms burgeons burgeoning burgeoned bourgeon
- noun (obsolete) A bud, sprout, or shoot.
- verb (intransitive) To grow or expand. “Gradually, the town burgeoned into a thriving city.”
- verb (intransitive) To swell to the point of bursting.
- verb (intransitive, archaic) Of plants, to bloom, bud.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English burjon, burjoun (“shoot, bud”), from Anglo-Norman burjun, burgeon, burgon (compare Old French burjon (“a bud”)), from Old Frankish *burjō (“sprout, offshoot, descendant”), from Proto-Germanic *burjô (“sprout, descendant, offshoot”), from Proto-Germanic *burjaną (“to raise up”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-. Compare Old High German burjan, burien, burren (“to push up, raise”), Old English byrian (“to come up, occur”), Old English byre (“child, son, descendant”), Albanian buron (“sprout, spring, gush out”). 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).
From Middle English burjounen, from Old French borjoner, bourjoner, burjuner.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “burgeon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details