bouillabaisse

English

WOTD – 18 June 2020

Etymology

une bouillabaisse servie avec de la rouille.

Borrowed from French bouillabaisse, from Occitan bolhabaissa, bouiabaisso, possibly a compound of bolhir (“to boil”) +‎ abaissar (“to lower (the temperature)”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbuːjəˌbeɪs/, /-ˌbɛs/, /ˌbuːjəˈbeɪs/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbujəˌbeɪs/, /ˌbujəˈbeɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪs
• Hyphenation: bouil‧la‧baisse
• Rhymes: -eɪz

Noun

bouillabaisse (countable and uncountable, plural bouillabaisses)

1. A type of fish soup or stew from Provence, France.
   • 1849, [William Makepeace Thackeray], “The Ballad of Bouillabaisse”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume XVI, London: Published at the office, 85, Fleet Street, →OCLC, page 67, column 1:

     And here's an inn, not rich and splendid, / But still in comfortable case; / The which in youth I oft attended, / To eat a bowl of Bouillabaisse. // This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is— / A sort of soup, or broth, or brew, / Or hotchpotch of all sorts of fishes, / That Greenwich never could outdo; / Green herbs, red peppers, mussels, saffern, / Soles, onions, garlic, roach, and dace; / All these you eat at Terré's tavern, / In that one dish of Bouillabaisse.

   • 1894, George du Maurier, “Part Fifth: Little Billee: An Interlude”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 243:

     First of all they dined together at a delightful little Franco-Italian pothouse near Leicester Square, where they had bouillabaisse (imagine the Laird's delight), and spaghetti, and a poulet rôti, which is such a different affair from a roast fowl!

   • 1926 November, Perceval Gibbon, “The Tryst”, in The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume LXXII, London: George Newnes, Ltd., […], →OCLC, page 468, column 2:

     Further to the east he could see the jetty of the Yacht Club, where one may eat to surfeit of the best bouillabaisse in the world, in some of the best company.

   • 1942, D. Barlone, “[3 September 1940]”, in L. V. Cass, transl., A French Officer’s Diary: (23 August 1939 – 1 October 1940), 1st paperback edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, published 2011, →ISBN, page 133:

     A remarkable bouillabaisse is served up in the little restaurant where I take my meals, that is, lunch, for in the evening I eat only fruit, figs and grapes mostly, in my room.

   • 1982, Mary Tapié de Céleyran, edited by Georges Beauté, A Toulouse-Lautrec Album, Salt Lake City, Ut.: Gibbs M. Smith, →ISBN, page 62, column 1:

     On the very bridge of the boat, exhilarated, he [Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec] concocted elaborate bouillabaisses, refining his recipes with priestly gravity.

   • 1985 December, John Mariani, “Entertaining on Board: Bouillabaisse—a Fine Kettle of Fish”, in Peter A. Janssen, editor, Motor Boating & Sailing, volume 156, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Hearst Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 28, column 1:

     If you want to start an argument among Frenchmen, just ask a group of them what goes into an authentic bouillabaisse—that lusty Mediterranean seafood stew fragrant with the aroma of fish, shellfish and saffron. The dish was first brought to Marseilles by sailors, and legend has it that the Greek goddess Venus cooked bouillabaisse for her husband Vulcan to put him to sleep so that she could go about other business.

   • 2013 April, Mary C[arolyn] Beaudry, “Mixing Food, Mixing Cultures: Archaeological Perspectives”, in W. Paul van Pelt, editor, Archaeological Review from Cambridge, volume 28, numbers 1 (Archaeology and Cultural Mixture), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Division of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 294:

     Catfish and redfish, turtles and shellfish (e.g. deep-fried clams) were often eaten in fricassees or bouillabaisses and in late summer, oysters and crawfish (described by one observer as "des ecrevices^{[sic – meaning écrevisses]} magnifiques") were consumed with enthusiasm [...].

2. (figuratively) A mixture.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hodgepodge, Thesaurus:mixture

   • 1976, James Monaco, The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 68:

     La Sirène du Mississipi is a synthesis of the work he [François Truffaut] has been doing during the preceding six or eight years, a great bouillabaisse of [Jean] Renoir, [Alfred] Hitchcock, [Humphrey] Bogart, [Antoine] Doinel, [...]

   • 1984, Wallace D[zu] Loh, “Implementation and Expansion of Law: Case Study of Southern and Northern School Desegregation”, in Social Research in the Judicial Process: Cases, Readings, and Text, New York, N.Y.: Russell Sage Foundation, →ISBN, part II (Social Research and Substantive Justice: Lawmaking in the Appellate Process), section 4.6 (Reinterpretation of Brown), page 160:

     Social psychologists differentiated between "merely desegregated" and "genuinely integrated" schools [...]. The former refers to a mere racial bouillabaisse and implies nothing about the quality of racial interaction that is a precondition to effective learning.

   • 1989, Barbara Probst Solomon, “Dwight Macdonald’s Against the American Grain”, in Horse-trading and Ecstasy: Essays, San Francisco, Calif.: North Point Press, →ISBN, page 65:

     By the mid-twentieth century the avant-garde, the good, the bad, and the fatal in-between [in art] have all become mixed in one indigestible bouillabaisse, and [Dwight] Macdonald has assigned himself the position of pointing out which is which.

   • 1993, Janet Trowbridge Bohlen, “Patricia Chapple Wright: The Creation of a Park”, in For the Wild Places: Profiles in Conservation, Washington, D.C., Covelo, Calif.: Island Press, →ISBN, page 16:

     The word "megadiversity" has been coined to describe such wildlife bouillabaisses, where many conservationists believe they should focus their efforts.

   • 2014, Frank Javier Garcia Berumen, “The 1970s”, in Latino Image Makers in Hollywood: Performers, Filmmakers and Films since the 1960s, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 84:

     It's who I am that matters. God, you can see the Indian in me. There are 200 kinds of Indians in Nicaragua—actually, I [Barbara Carrera] call myself a bouillabaisse of bloodlines.

   • 2021, Ian Millhiser, The Supreme Court just backed away from one of its cruelest death penalty decisions, vox.com, February 12 2021

     Both Dunn cases came to the Court on the “shadow docket,” a bouillabaisse of emergency motions and other matters that do not receive full briefing and oral argument before the justices decide a case.

Translations

type of fish stew or soup from Provence

• Catalan: bullabessa f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 馬賽魚湯／马赛鱼汤 (maa⁵ coi³ jyu⁴ tong¹)

  Mandarin: 馬賽魚湯／马赛鱼汤 (Mǎsài yútāng)

• Czech: bujabéza f
• Finnish: bouillabaisse, ranskalainen kalakeitto
• French: bouillabaisse (fr) f
• German: Bouillabaisse (de) f
• Greek: μπουγιαμπέσα (el) f (bougiampésa)
• Hebrew: בּוּיָאבֶּז m (buyabéz)
• Italian: bouillabaisse f
• Japanese: ブイヤベース (buiyabēsu)
• Korean: 부야베스 (buyabeseu)
• Occitan: bolhabaissa f
• Polish: bouillabaisse (pl) m or f
• Portuguese: bouillabaisse f
• Russian: буйабе́с (ru) m (bujabés), марсе́льская уха́ f (marsélʹskaja uxá, literally “Marseilles fish soup”)
• Spanish: bullabesa f
• Swedish: bouillabaisse (sv) c

mixture — see mixture

Further reading

• bouillabaisse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Finnish

Etymology

French bouillabaisse

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbujɑˌbeːs/, [ˈbujɑ̝ˌbe̞ːs̠]

Noun

bouillabaisse

1. bouillabaisse (type of fish soup)

   Synonym: ranskalainen kalakeitto

Declension

Inflection of bouillabaisse (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)
nominative		bouillabaisse	bouillabaisset
genitive		bouillabaissen	bouillabaissejen
partitive		bouillabaissea	bouillabaisseja
illative		bouillabaisseen	bouillabaisseihin
		singular	plural
nominative		bouillabaisse	bouillabaisset
accusative	nom.	bouillabaisse	bouillabaisset
	gen.	bouillabaissen
genitive		bouillabaissen	bouillabaissejen bouillabaissein rare
partitive		bouillabaissea	bouillabaisseja
inessive		bouillabaissessa	bouillabaisseissa
elative		bouillabaissesta	bouillabaisseista
illative		bouillabaisseen	bouillabaisseihin
adessive		bouillabaissella	bouillabaisseilla
ablative		bouillabaisselta	bouillabaisseilta
allative		bouillabaisselle	bouillabaisseille
essive		bouillabaissena	bouillabaisseina
translative		bouillabaisseksi	bouillabaisseiksi
abessive		bouillabaissetta	bouillabaisseitta
instructive		—	bouillabaissein
comitative		See the possessive forms below.

Possessive forms of bouillabaisse (Kotus type 8/nalle, no gradation)

first-person singular possessor singular plural nominative bouillabaisseni bouillabaisseni accusative nom. bouillabaisseni bouillabaisseni gen. bouillabaisseni genitive bouillabaisseni bouillabaissejeni bouillabaisseini rare partitive bouillabaisseani bouillabaissejani inessive bouillabaissessani bouillabaisseissani elative bouillabaissestani bouillabaisseistani illative bouillabaisseeni bouillabaisseihini adessive bouillabaissellani bouillabaisseillani ablative bouillabaisseltani bouillabaisseiltani allative bouillabaisselleni bouillabaisseilleni essive bouillabaissenani bouillabaisseinani translative bouillabaissekseni bouillabaisseikseni abessive bouillabaissettani bouillabaisseittani instructive — — comitative — bouillabaisseineni second-person singular possessor singular plural nominative bouillabaissesi bouillabaissesi accusative nom. bouillabaissesi bouillabaissesi gen. bouillabaissesi genitive bouillabaissesi bouillabaissejesi bouillabaisseisi rare partitive bouillabaisseasi bouillabaissejasi inessive bouillabaissessasi bouillabaisseissasi elative bouillabaissestasi bouillabaisseistasi illative bouillabaisseesi bouillabaisseihisi adessive bouillabaissellasi bouillabaisseillasi ablative bouillabaisseltasi bouillabaisseiltasi allative bouillabaissellesi bouillabaisseillesi essive bouillabaissenasi bouillabaisseinasi translative bouillabaisseksesi bouillabaisseiksesi abessive bouillabaissettasi bouillabaisseittasi instructive — — comitative — bouillabaisseinesi first-person plural possessor singular plural nominative bouillabaissemme bouillabaissemme accusative nom. bouillabaissemme bouillabaissemme gen. bouillabaissemme genitive bouillabaissemme bouillabaissejemme bouillabaisseimme rare partitive bouillabaisseamme bouillabaissejamme inessive bouillabaissessamme bouillabaisseissamme elative bouillabaissestamme bouillabaisseistamme illative bouillabaisseemme bouillabaisseihimme adessive bouillabaissellamme bouillabaisseillamme ablative bouillabaisseltamme bouillabaisseiltamme allative bouillabaissellemme bouillabaisseillemme essive bouillabaissenamme bouillabaisseinamme translative bouillabaisseksemme bouillabaisseiksemme abessive bouillabaissettamme bouillabaisseittamme instructive — — comitative — bouillabaisseinemme second-person plural possessor singular plural nominative bouillabaissenne bouillabaissenne accusative nom. bouillabaissenne bouillabaissenne gen. bouillabaissenne genitive bouillabaissenne bouillabaissejenne bouillabaisseinne rare partitive bouillabaisseanne bouillabaissejanne inessive bouillabaissessanne bouillabaisseissanne elative bouillabaissestanne bouillabaisseistanne illative bouillabaisseenne bouillabaisseihinne adessive bouillabaissellanne bouillabaisseillanne ablative bouillabaisseltanne bouillabaisseiltanne allative bouillabaissellenne bouillabaisseillenne essive bouillabaissenanne bouillabaisseinanne translative bouillabaisseksenne bouillabaisseiksenne abessive bouillabaissettanne bouillabaisseittanne instructive — — comitative — bouillabaisseinenne third-person possessor singular plural nominative bouillabaissensa bouillabaissensa accusative nom. bouillabaissensa bouillabaissensa gen. bouillabaissensa genitive bouillabaissensa bouillabaissejensa bouillabaisseinsa rare partitive bouillabaisseaan bouillabaisseansa bouillabaissejaan bouillabaissejansa inessive bouillabaissessaan bouillabaissessansa bouillabaisseissaan bouillabaisseissansa elative bouillabaissestaan bouillabaissestansa bouillabaisseistaan bouillabaisseistansa illative bouillabaisseensa bouillabaisseihinsa adessive bouillabaissellaan bouillabaissellansa bouillabaisseillaan bouillabaisseillansa ablative bouillabaisseltaan bouillabaisseltansa bouillabaisseiltaan bouillabaisseiltansa allative bouillabaisselleen bouillabaissellensa bouillabaisseilleen bouillabaisseillensa essive bouillabaissenaan bouillabaissenansa bouillabaisseinaan bouillabaisseinansa translative bouillabaissekseen bouillabaisseksensa bouillabaisseikseen bouillabaisseiksensa abessive bouillabaissettaan bouillabaissettansa bouillabaisseittaan bouillabaisseittansa instructive — — comitative — bouillabaisseineen bouillabaisseinensa

French

Etymology

From Occitan bolhabaissa, possibly a compound of bolhir (“to boil”) +‎ abaissar (“to lower [temperature]”). By surface analysis, bouillir +‎ abaisser.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.ja.bɛs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛs

Noun

bouillabaisse f (countable and uncountable, plural bouillabaisses)

1. bouillabaisse (fish soup from Provence)

Further reading

• “bouillabaisse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.