Chapter Bouders to Bower of Bliss of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Bouders to Bower of Bliss

Bouders or Boudons. A tribe of giants and evil genii, the guard of Shiva. (Indian mythology.)

Boudoir properly speaking, is the room to which a lady retires when she is in the sulks. (French, bouder, to pout or sulk.)
   The first boudoirs were those of the mistresses of Louis XV. (See Bower.)

Boues de St. Amand (Les ). The mud baths of St. Amand (that is, St. Amand - les - Eaux, near Valenciennes, famous for its mineral waters). These mud - baths are a “sorte de limon qui se trouve prés des eaux minérales. ” By a figure of speech, one says, by way of reproof, to an insolent, foul-mouthed fellow, “I see you have been to the mud-baths of St. Amand.”

Bought and Sold or Bought, sold, and done for. Ruined, done for, outwitted.

“Jocky of Norfolk, be not too bold,
For Diccon, thy master, is bought and sold.”
Shakespeare: Richard III., act v. 3.

“It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold.”- Comedy of Errors, iii. 1.

Bougie A wax candle; so called from Bougiah, in Algeria, whence the wax was imported. A medical instrument used for dilating strictures or removing obstructions.

Boule or Boule-work (not Buhl). A kind of marquetry; so called from André Charles Boule, a cabinetmaker, to whom Louis XIV. gave apartments in the Louvre. (1642-1732.)

Bouljanus An idol worshipped at Nantes, in ancient Gaul. An inscription was found to this god in 1592. (Celtic mythology. )

Bouncer That's a bouncer. A gross exaggeration, a braggart's lie. (Dutch, bonz, verb bonzen, to bounce or thump. A bouncing lie is a thumping lie, and a bouncer is a thumper.)

“He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and bounce.”- Shakespeare: King John, ii. 2.

Bounty Queen Anne's Bounty. The produce of the first-fruits and tenths due to the Crown, made over by Queen Anne to a corporation established in the year 1704, for the purpose of augmenting church livings under 50 a year.

Bouquet French for nosegay.

“Mr. Disraeli was able to make a financial statement burst into a bouquet of flowers.”- McCarthy: Our Own Times, vol. iii. chap. xxx. p. 11.

   The bouquet of wine, also called its nosegay, is its aroma.

Bourbon So named from the castle and seigniory of Bourbon, in the old province of Bourbonnais. The Bourbon family is a branch of the Capet stock, through the brother of Philippe le Bel.

Bourgeois (French), our burgess. The class between the “gentleman” and the peasantry. It includes all merchants, shopkeepers, and what we call the “middle class.”

Bourgeoisie (French). The merchants, manufacturers, and master-tradesmen considered as a class. Citoyen is a freeman, a citizen of the State; bourgeois, an individual of the Bourgeoisie class. Moliére has a comedy entitled Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.

“The commons of England, the Tiers-Etat of France, the bourgeoisie of the Continent generally, are the descendants of this class [artisans] generally.”- Mill: Political Economy (Prelim, p. 12).

Bouse (See Boozy. )