début
See also: debut and Debüt
English
Alternative forms
- debut
- débute (verb only)
Etymology
Borrowed from French début, from débuter (“begin, start, lead off”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (French) IPA(key): /deby/[1][2]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈdeɪbuː/[1], /ˈdeɪbjuː/[1]
- (General American) IPA(key): /deɪˈbju/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
début (plural débuts)
- (chiefly of public perfomers)[1] A person’s or thing’s first appearance before society or another audience; one’s “maiden voyage”.[1]
- make one's début
Translations
first appearance
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Verb
début (third-person singular simple present débuts, present participle débuting, simple past and past participle débuted)
- To make one's début.[1]
Usage notes
- (applicable to all senses) On first reading by a person unfamiliar with this term, debut may be mispronounced [dɪˈbʌt] (cf. rebut) if it is written without the disambiguating acute accent.
Related terms
- débutant (masculine agent noun)
- débutante (feminine agent noun)
Translations
to make one's debut
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References
- “début, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]
- A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H. W. Fowler (1926; Oxford at the Clarendon Press; London: w:Humphrey Milford), page 104; début, débutant(e). Début can only be pronounced as French […]
- The Oxford English Dictionary defines début but does not list debut.
Anagrams
- tubed
French
Etymology
From Middle French, derivative of desbuter (“to move, begin”), from des- + but (“mark, goal”), from Old French but (“aim, goal, end, target”), either from Old French butte (“mound, knoll, target”), from Frankish *but (“stump, log”), or from Old Norse bútr (“log, stump, butt”); both from Proto-Germanic *butą (“end, piece”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to beat, push”).[1] Cognate with Old English butt (“tree stump”). More at English butt.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /de.by/
audio (file)
Noun
début m (plural débuts)
- start, beginning
Derived terms
- au début
- débutant
- débutante
- début du fou
- débuter
- début ouvert
- faire ses débuts
- générique de début
Descendants
- → Czech: debut
- → Danish: debut
- → German: Debüt
- → English: début, debut
- → Italian: debutto
- → Korean: 데뷔 (debwi)
- → Norwegian Bokmål: debut
- → Norwegian Nynorsk: debut
- → Spanish: debut
- → Swedish: debut
References
- Friedrich Kluge (1989), “début”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN
Further reading
- “début”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.