béguin

See also: beguin

English

Etymology

Colloquial French béguin (“bonnet”). The verb embéguiner (“to wear a bonnet”) came to mean ‘to have a crush on someone’. The word itself came from beguine (lay nuns who typically wore such bonnets).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beˈɡiːn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

béguin (plural béguins)

1. An infatuation or fancy.
   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 51”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     Then he said: 'But what does Ata say to it?' 'It appears that she has a beguin for you,' I said. 'She's willing if you are. Shall I call her?'

   • 1972, Patrick O'Brian, Post Captain:

     ‘I see now. And you have a béguin for her too? It is no use, I warn you.’

Translations

an infatuation or fancy

• Russian: стра́сть (ru) f (strástʹ)

Anagrams

• Bungie

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /be.ɡɛ̃/

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French beguin.

Noun

béguin m (plural béguins, feminine béguine)

1. (historical) Beghard, Beguin (religious laymen living in semimonastic communities in imitation of the Beguines)

   Synonyms: bégard, béguard

Derived terms

• béguinage

Noun

béguin m (plural béguins)

1. a type of headwear once popular with Beguines, similar to a bonnet

Etymology 2

From embéguiner.

Noun

béguin m (plural béguins)

1. (informal) crush, fancy (a short-lived and unrequited love or infatuation)

   J’ai le béguin pour elle. ― I've got a crush on her.

2. (informal) crush (person with whom one is infatuated)

   C’est mon béguin. ― She's my crush.

Descendants

• → English: béguin

Further reading

• béguin on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr
• “béguin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.