boutade

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French boutade, from bouter (“to thrust”). See butt.

Noun

boutade (plural boutades)

1. A sudden outbreak or outburst; a caprice, a whim.
   • 1884, Henry James, “The Path of Duty”, in The English Illustrated Magazine, 2(15): 240-256:

     [H]e suddenly broke out, "Well, then, as I understand you, what you recommend me is to marry Miss Bernardstone, and carry on an intrigue with Lady Vandeleur!" He knew perfectly that I recommended nothing of the sort, and he must have been very angry to indulge in this boutade.

   • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:

     Thus we see that Wilde's witticisms contain a wealth of unsuspected meaning. Even his apparently nonsensical boutades are Late Romantic gestures.

Dutch

Etymology

From French boutade.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌbuˈtaː.də/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bou‧ta‧de
• Rhymes: -aːdə

Noun

boutade f (plural boutades)

1. witticism

French

Etymology

Earlier boutée, from bouter (“to push”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.tad/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

boutade f (plural boutades)

1. caprice, whim
2. quip, joke

   dire quelque chose en boutade

   to say something jokingly

Further reading

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

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French boutade. Doublet of buttata.

Noun

boutade f (invariable)

1. witticism, wisecrack

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French boutade.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buˈtad/ [buˈt̪að̞]
• Rhymes: -ad

Noun

boutade f (plural boutades)

1. wisecrack

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.

Further reading

• “boutade”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10