beaucoup
English
Alternative forms
- boku, boocoo, bookoo, buku
Etymology
Borrowed from French beaucoup. Popularized by the American GIs during the Vietnam War.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /boʊˈkuː/, /buːˈkuː/
Determiner
beaucoup
- (US, informal) Much, many, a lot of.
- You know that cost beaucoup bucks!
- 1979, Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers, New York: Bantam Books, published 1980, →ISBN, page 93:
- Donlon says, "Well, we're rich and we got beaucoup beer and beaucoup chow. Now all we need is the Bob Hope show."
Noun
beaucoup (plural beaucoups)
- An abundance.
- 1970, Buzz Rabin (lyrics), “Beaucoups of Blues”, in Beaucoups of Blues, performed by Ringo Starr:
- Alongside the road with holes in my soul and my shoes / And beaucoups of blues
-
Adverb
beaucoup (not comparable)
- In abundance.
French
Etymology
From Old French biau cop, first attested circa 1210.[1] Equivalent to beau (“nice, beautiful”) + coup (“hit, strike”). The latter word also means “helping of soup or beverage”, first attested circa 1375, whose sense may have triggered or reinforced beaucoup to mean “a lot”.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bo.ku/
audio (file) - Rhymes: -u
Adverb
beaucoup
- much, very much, a lot
- Merci beaucoup! ― Thank you very much!
- Je mange beaucoup. ― I eat a lot.
Related terms
- beau, belle
See also
- plus
- autant
- moins
References
- Claude Buridant Grammaire nouvelle de l'ancien français, 2000. →ISBN
Further reading
- “beaucoup”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.