bacon

See also: Bacon, bacón, baćon, báçoⁿ, and bà con

English

Etymology

From Middle English bacoun (“meat from the back and sides of a pig”), from Anglo-Norman bacon, bacun (“ham, flitch, strip of lard”), from Old Low Frankish *bakō (“ham, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *bakô, *bakkô (“back”), an extension of *baką, whence English back, which see for more. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“back, buttocks; to vault, arch”).

Cognate with Old Saxon baco (“back”), Dutch bake (“ham, side of bacon”), Old High German bahho (“ham, side of bacon”), whence German Bache f (“wild sow”), Alemannic German Bache m (“bacon”).

(police): Extension of pig (“police”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: bā'kən, IPA^(key): /ˈbeɪ.kən/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪkən
• Homophone: bakin' (US)

Noun

Raw belly bacon or streaky bacon, usually referred to simply as bacon in the US

Raw back bacon, usually referred to simply as bacon in the UK

bacon (usually uncountable, plural bacons)

1. Cured meat from the sides, belly, or back of a pig.
   • 2006, Joanna Pruess, Seduced by Bacon, The Lyons Press, →ISBN, page 93:

     They fried the fish with bacon and were astonished, for no fish had ever seemed so delicious before.

   • 2009 March 31, Laura Casey, “Piggin' out on bacon at S.F.'s BaconCamp”, in San Jose Mercury News‎^[1], retrieved 2010-10-19:

     For us the pig's the means, while bacon is the end / Providing gustatory heights to which we can ascend.

   • 2009 August 12, Lisa Abraham, “Bacon comes home - Old favorite tastes even better when you do the curing yourself”, in Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio, page D1:

     Bacon is something that everybody is familiar with and most people grew up eating. It has a comfort aspect to it and a familiarity. It's also got an addictive aspect to it - that sweet and salty combination of flavors. And it's probably just a little bit unhealthy for you. When you get to have bacon, it's exciting and something you look forward to.

2. Thin slices of the above in long strips.
3. (slang, derogatory) The police or spies.

   Run! It's the bacon!

4. (cycling, slang, uncountable) Road rash.
5. (military, archaic) A saucisse.

Usage notes

In the UK, the word bacon on its own usually refers specifically to loin or back bacon (similar to the US Canadian bacon). In the US, bacon usually refers to side or belly bacon (referred to as streaky bacon in the UK).

Synonyms

• (cut of meat from a pig): ham, pork

Derived terms

• back bacon
• bacon and cabbage
• bacon and eggs
• bacon beetle
• baconburger
• bacon butty
• baconed
• baconer
• bacon explosion
• bacon-faced
• bacon-fed
• bacon grease
• bacon grill
• baconize
• baconless
• baconlike
• bacon rind
• bacon square
• baconweed
• bacony
• bring home the bacon
• Canadian bacon
• carrot bacon
• chawbacon
• cottage bacon
• eggs and bacon
• facon
• fakon
• fry someone's bacon
• good voice to beg bacon
• Irish bacon
• macon
• peameal bacon
• pig upon bacon
• pull someone's bacon out of the fire
• save someone's bacon
• side bacon
• side of bacon
• steal the bacon
• streaky bacon
• turkey bacon
• whale bacon
• white bacon

 

Related terms

• back

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: бекон (bekon)
• → Finnish: pekoni
• → French: bacon
• → Hebrew: בייקון
• → Italian: becon
• → Japanese: ベーコン (bēkon)
• → Maori: pēkana
• → Maltese: bejken
• → Norwegian Bokmål: bacon, beiken
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: bacon, beiken
• → Polish: bekon
• → Portuguese: bacon
• → Russian: бекон (bekon)
• → Spanish: bacon, beicon
• → Swedish: bacon

Translations

cut of meat

• Afrikaans: spek
• Arabic: بَاكُون m (bākūn), بَيْكُون m (baykūn)
• Armenian: բեկոն (hy) (bekon)
• Belarusian: беко́н m (bjekón)
• Bengali: বেকন (bekon)
• Bulgarian: беко́н (bg) m (bekón)
• Burmese: ဘေကွန် (bhe-kwan)
• Catalan: cansalada (ca) f
• Chickasaw: shokha' nipi' shila'
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 煙肉 / 烟肉 (jin¹ juk⁶)

  Mandarin: 熏鹹肉 (xūn xiánròu), 培根 (zh) (péigēn), 燻肉 / 熏肉 (zh) (xūnròu), 鹹肉 / 咸肉 (zh) (xiánròu)

• Cornish: kig mogh m
• Czech: slanina (cs) f
• Danish: flæsk n
• Dutch: bacon (nl) m
• Esperanto: lardo (eo)
• Estonian: peekon (et)
• Finnish: kylki (fi)
• French: lard (fr) m, lardon (fr) m
• Galician: touciño (gl) m, panceta (gl) f, lardo (gl) m, cebullo m
• Georgian: ბეკონი (beḳoni)
• German: Speck (de) m
• Greek: μπέικον (el) n (béikon)
• Hebrew: קותל חזיר m (kótel ḥazzír), קָתְלֵי חֲזִיר (he) m pl (kotléy ḥazzír)
• Hindi: बेकन (bekan)
• Hungarian: szalonna (hu), császárszalonna (hu), baconszalonna, kolozsvári szalonna, angolszalonna (hu)
• Icelandic: flesk (is) n, beikon (is) n
• Ido: lardo (io)
• Indonesian: daging babi asap, daging asap (id)
• Irish: bagún m, muiceoil shaillte f
• Italian: pancetta (it) f
• Japanese: ベーコン (ja) (bēkon)
• Kazakh: бекон (bekon)
• Khmer: សាច់បីជាន់ (sac bəy coan), សាច់ជ្រូកបីជាន់ (sac cruuk bəy coan), សាច់ជ្រូកខ្វៃ (sac cruuk kvay)
• Korean: 베이컨 (beikeon)
• Kyrgyz: бекон (bekon)
• Ladin: ciociul m
• Latin: laridum
• Latvian: speķis m
• Lithuanian: bekonas m
• Macedonian: сланина f (slanina)
• Malay: bakon, dendeng babi
• Maltese: bejken
• Maori: pēkana
• Marathi: बेकन m (bekan)
• Middle English: bacoun, lard
• Mongolian: утсан гахайн мах (utsan gaxajn max)
• Navajo: bisóodi, bisóodi bitsįʼ niheeshchʼiizhígíí
• North Frisian: speek
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: (røykt) flesk n, bacon (no) n

  Nynorsk: (røykt) flesk n, bacon n

• Old English: spiċ n
• Persian: بیکن (beyken), لارد (lârd)
• Plautdietsch: Spakj m
• Polish: boczek (pl) m (streaky bacon), bekon (pl) m (back bacon)
• Portuguese: toucinho defumado, bacon (pt) m
• Romanian: bacon (ro) n, slănină (ro) f, lard (ro)
• Romansch: charnpiertg f
• Russian: беко́н (ru) m (bekón), ветчина́ (ru) f (vetčiná) (ham)
• Scottish Gaelic: feòil-mhuice f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сланина f

  Roman: slanina (sh) f

• Sinhalese: බේකන් (bēkan)
• Slovak: slanina f
• Slovene: slanina (sl) f
• Spanish: tocino (es) m, (Cuba, Spain, Dominican Republic) beicon m, (Colombia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela) tocineta f, (Argentina, Uruguay) panceta ahumada f, bacón (es) m
• Swedish: bacon (sv) n
• Thai: เบคอน (bee-kɔ̂n)
• Turkish: domuz pastırması
• Ukrainian: беко́н (uk) m (bekón)
• Urdu: بیکن (bekan)
• Uzbek: bekon
• Vietnamese: thịt muối, thịt lợn muối xông khói
• Volapük: pined (vo), (pig) svinapined, (cattle) bubapined
• Welsh: cig moch (cy), bacwn m
• Yiddish: שפּעק m (shpek)

thin slice of pork

• Bulgarian: бекон (bg) (bekon)
• Chickasaw: shokha' nipi' shila'
• Finnish: pekoni (fi), silava (fi)
• Galician: gulerpa f
• Greek: μπέικον (el) n (béikon)
• Hebrew: קותל חזיר m (kótel ḥazzír)
• Maori: pēkana
• Marathi: बेकन m (bekan)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bacon (no) n

  Nynorsk: bacon n

• Old English: spiċ n
• Spanish: tocino (es) m
• Swedish: bacon (sv) n (thin-cut, American-style / streaky bacon made from pork belly), fläsk (sv) n (thick-cut), stekfläsk n (thick-cut, meant to be fried)
• Turkish: jambon (tr)

See also

• flitch
• gammon
• guanciale
• hock
• pancetta
• green, in the sense of unsmoked
• smoked
• hog
• porcine
• rasher
• slab
• sow
• swine
• bacon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• coban, Bonac, banco

French

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bacon, from Middle English bacon (“meat from the back and sides of a pig”), from Old French bacon, bacun (“ham, strip of lard”), from Frankish *bakkō, from Proto-Germanic *bakō, *baką, *bakaz (“back”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“back, buttocks; to vault, arch”).

Attested since 1899.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /be.kɔn/, /be.kœn/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (France, Normandy):

  (file)

Noun

bacon m (uncountable)

1. bacon

Further reading

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

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛ.kon/
• Rhymes: -ɛkon

Noun

bacon m (invariable)

1. bacon

   Synonym: pancetta

Further reading

• bacon in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
• bacon in garzantilinguistica.it – Garzanti Linguistica, De Agostini Scuola Spa

Anagrams

• Banco, banco, bancò

Middle English

Noun

bacon

1. Alternative form of bacoun

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːkən/, /bæjkən/
• Rhymes: -eːkən, -æjkən

Noun

bacon n (definite singular baconet)

1. bacon

References

• “bacon” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛɪːkən/, /ˈbeːkən/
• Rhymes: -ɛɪːkən, -eːkən

Noun

bacon n (definite singular baconet)

1. bacon

References

• “bacon” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old French

Alternative forms

• bacun, bacoun

Etymology

From Frankish *bakō, from Proto-Germanic *bakô.

Noun

bacon oblique singular, m (oblique plural bacons, nominative singular bacons, nominative plural bacon)

1. bacon, salted pork, ham, shank (of a pig)

Descendants

• Middle French: bacon
• Picard: bacôn (Athois)
• → Middle English: bacoun
  • English: bacon (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: bawcon
  • → Welsh: bacwn
  • Yola: bawkoon, bawcoon, bacoon, bakoon

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈbej.kõ/ [ˈbeɪ̯.kõ]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈbɐj.kɔn/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈbɐj.kɔn/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈbej.kɔn/
  • (Central Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈbej.kɔn/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈbe.kɔn/

Noun

bacon m (plural bacons)

1. bacon (cured meat from the belly, sides or back of a pig)

See also

• toucinho

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bacon.

Noun

bacon n (uncountable)

1. bacon

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	bacon	baconul
genitive-dative	bacon	baconului
vocative	baconule

Spanish

Alternative forms

• bacón, beicon

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bacon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeikon/ [ˈbei̯.kõn]
• Rhymes: -eikon

Noun

bacon m (plural bacons)

1. bacon

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Swedish

bacon i stekpanna [bacon in a frying pan]

Etymology

Borrowed from English bacon. First attested in 1924.

Noun

bacon n

1. bacon, streaky bacon

   Bacon är rimmat sidfläsk

   Bacon is salt-cured pork belly

Usage notes

Normally reserved for thin-cut, American-style / streaky bacon made from pork belly. Thick-cut bacon is fläsk. Referring to thick-cut bacon as bacon will likely confuse many native Swedish speakers, as most are bound to be unaware that bacon can be thicker in English.

Declension

Declension of bacon

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	bacon	bacons
	definite	baconet	baconets
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

References

• bacon in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• bacon in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)