bouleau

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French, derived from Old French boul, bououl + -eau. The former from *betullus, alteration of Latin betulla, diminutive of Gaulish *betua, from Proto-Celtic *betwiyos, *betuyā (“birch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-. Compare Italian betulla, Catalan bedoll, Spanish abedul, Portuguese bétula, as well as Galician bídalo and bidueiro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.lo/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bou‧leau
• Homophones: bouleaux (general), boulot, boulots (except regionally)

Noun

bouleau m (plural bouleaux)

1. birch tree

Further reading

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