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Origin and history of boudoir

boudoir(n.)

"room where a lady may retire to be alone or to receive her intimate friends," 1777, from French boudoir (18c.), literally "pouting room," from bouder "to pout, sulk," which, like pout and bouffant, probably ultimately is imitative of puffing. Also compare dialectal sumph "be sulky," and sulky (adj.); boudoir was Englished at least once as sulkery (1906).

also from 1777

Entries linking to boudoir

bouffant(adj.)

1869, in dressmaking, "puffed out, bulging," from French bouffant, present participle of bouffer "to puff out," from Old French bouffer (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *buffare, probably ultimately imitative of puffing. As a noun by 1870. Earlier as a French word in English. Used of hairdo styles from 1955.

pout(v.)

"thrust out the lips, as in sullenness or displeasure," mid-14c., of uncertain origin, perhaps from Scandinavian (compare Swedish dialectal puta "to be puffed out"), or Frisian (compare East Frisian püt "bag, swelling," Low German puddig "swollen"); related via notion of "inflation" to Old English ælepute "fish with inflated parts," Modern English pout as a fish name, and Middle Dutch puyt, Flemish puut "frog," all from a hypothetical PIE imitative root *beu- suggesting "swelling" (see bull (n.2)). Also compare French bouder "to pout," also presumably imitative (and the source of boudoir). Related: Pouted; pouting.

As a noun from 1590s; "a protrusion of the lips as in pouting; a fit of sullenness or displeasure."

sulky(adj.)

"quietly sullen, silently resentful, moody and aloof, disposed to repel friendly advances," 1744, a word of uncertain origin. There is no record of it in Middle English. Connection has been suggested to the obsolete adjective sulke "hard to sell" (1630s) and to Old English asolcen "idle, lazy, slow."

This is a past-participle adjective from aseolcan "become sluggish, be weak or idle" (related to besylcan "be languid"), from Proto-Germanic *seklan (source also of Middle High German selken "to drop, fall").

But words of meaning similar to sulky often are held to be imitative (compare miff, mope, pout, boudoir). Related: Sulkily; sulkiness.

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Trends of boudoir

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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