Borrowed from French bougie (“wax candle”), after the Algerian city Bougie (Béjaïa), and the tapered, hand-dipped candles it made. The medical instruments were originally made from waxed linen. Doublet of bugia.
Meanings
A tapered cylindrical instrument for introducing an object into a tubular anatomical structure, or to dilate such a structure, as with an esophageal bougie.
"There, as my lord, with achromatic glass, / "O'erlooks St. James's Park, and on the grass, / "Beneath his mansion's half-closed window spies / "Two crouching urchins' gross obscenities, / "He turns his eager gaze, adjusts the screw, / "And brings their unwashed nudities in view. / "That spot, concealed by two o'er hanging hills, / "Foul sweat and fœtid excrement distils, / "Yet frowsy, there the pipe-clayed soldier sports, / "And bishops hold episcopalian courts. / "'Tis there the Bath empiric's finger guides, / "The oiled bougie ; and as the dildo slides / "Besmeared, to meet last night's descending meal, / "Oft makes the strictures he pretends to heal. 1866, “Don Leon”, in Don Leon ; A Poem by the Late Lord Byron, Author of Childe Harold, Don Juan, &c., &c. and forming part of the private journal of His Lordship, supposed to have been entirely destoyed by Thos. Moore. To which is added Leon to Annabella; An epistle from Lord Byron to Lady Byron. (Poetry), →OCLC, pages 44, 51–52:
2001, Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, Alfred A. Knopf (2001), 12,
I was not too sure, as a child, what doctors "did," and glimpses of catheters and bougies in their kidney dishes, retractors and speculums, rubber gloves, catgut thread, and forecepts - all this, I think, rather frightened me, though it fascinated me too.
(derogatory, qualifier:African-American Vernacular, slang, usually) Behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status, middle-class / bourgeois people (sometimes carrying connotations of fakeness, elitism, or snobbery).
Called “bougie” when she was growing up, even though she’d never considered herself close to that, Ewing has turned the word around, using it as the title of a fictitious magazine she has dreamed up. 2007 October 12, L. Kent Wolgamott, “Satire pervades the series of fictional magazine covers”, in The Lincoln Journal Star:
Hey, look, man, I haven't changed, I'm not gonna change and I'm not down with this bougie stuff. 1991 September 23, “Will Gets a Job”, in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, season 2, episode 3:
Shangela is kind of bougie, but she's also your homegirl. 2010 February 1, “Gone With the Window”, in RuPaul's Drag Race, season 2, episode 1:
“The prices. I can’t comprehend how low the prices are for the quality, organic foods that they sell,” Mrs. Ortiz said. “It feels like I’m at a bougie store, but I’m not paying bougie prices.” 2025 August 6, Julie Creswell, “Aldi’s Passionate, Cultlike Following Fuels Its Rapid Expansion Plans”, in The New York Times:
I'll be on the movie screens / Magazines and bougie scenes 2007, “Glamorous”, performed by Fergie:
I don't need you or your brand new Benz / Or your bougie friends 2010, “Sleazy”, performed by Ke$ha:
Bougie attitude, I'm from the West End / I want the finer things in life 2023, “Outside”, performed by Br3nya:
But if the mix is no longer about life's essentials, and instead a new wave of chichi cafés, artisan bakers and fancy nail bars—are we right to ask, not how useful is your high street, but how bougie? 2025 August 2, Cathy Hawker, “How bougie is your high street?”, in FT Weekend (House & Home section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:
Sure, you can go to a bougie bakery and purchase an artisanal sourdough without any additives that will cost much more and taste better than a supermarket loaf. But ultimately, bread is made from flour, salt, water and yeast. 2024 March 6, Giles Yeo, “Why the double standards on ultra-processed foods? Because some have better PR than others”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
(Canada, UK, slang) Fancy or good-looking, without connotations of snobbery or pretentiousness.
es pituco (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status) · es cheto (fancy or good-looking) · es fufu (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status) · es burgués (fancy or good-looking) · es concheto (fancy or good-looking) · es fufurufo (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status) · es fufú (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status) · es de postín (fancy or good-looking) · es pijo (fancy or good-looking) · es fresón (fancy or good-looking) · es siútico (fancy or good-looking) · es pijo (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status) · es popof (fancy or good-looking) · es ficho (fancy or good-looking) · es bucloso (fancy or good-looking) · es pseudoburgués (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status) · es fresa (fancy or good-looking) · es fichudo (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status) · es fifí (behaving like or pertaining to people of a higher social status)
bougie en · NOUN · etymology 2
Pronunciation
bo͞oʹzhē
/ˈbuːʒi/
Etymology
From bourgeoisie.
Meanings
(derogatory, qualifier:chiefly African-American Vernacular, slang, usually) A person who exhibits bougie behavior.
All in all, Black Anglo-Saxons today remain a variegated group, and their numbers continue, relentlessly, to multiply. / In the late 1960's^([sic – meaning 1960s]) following the first appearance of this book, The Black Anglo-Saxons, street militants and conscious members of the Black middle class popularly called them "bougies." 1991 [1965], Nathan Hare, “Introduction”, in The Black Anglo-Saxons, page iii:
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
bougies
Number=Plur
lexicographic
Translations (8)
fr bourge (Translations) · es fifí (Translations) · es concheto (Translations) · es fichudo (Translations) · es fufurufo (Translations) · es pijo (Translations) · es pituco (Translations) · es bucloso (Translations)
bougie en · NOUN · etymology 3
Meanings
(alt-of, alternative) Alternative spelling of bowjy (“shed for cattle or sheep”).