Dictionary

burse en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbɜː(ɹ)s/

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French bourse, from Old French borse, from Latin bursa, from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa). Doublet of purse, compare French bourse (“purse, fund”).

Meanings

1. (historical) A purse.
   • Roche stepped forward with a leather burse, announcing that he would pay for both of us. 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter IX, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 90:
   • Try a burse instead – sort of a bag, sort of a purse, inspired by the cases that hold the corporal cloth used in mass, and designed to be carried by men. 2021 January 22, The Guardian:
2. A fund or foundation for the maintenance of the needy scholars in their studies.
3. An ornamental case to hold the corporal when not in use.
4. (obsolete) A stock exchange; a bourse.
5. (obsolete) A kind of bazaar.

Forms

Deriveds

disburse · imburse · deburse