bichon

Borrowed from French bichon.

• IPA^(key): /biʃɔn/

bichon (plural bichons)

1. Any of a class of toy dogs with curly or wavy hair and long curled tails.
2. (especially Canada, US) A Bichon Frisé.

• Bichon Frisé
• Bolognese
• Bolonka
• Coton de Tulear
• Havanese
• Löwchen
• Maltese

• bichon on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Inherited from Middle French bichon (“small long-haired dog”), from Old French biche (“bitch, female dog”), from Old English biċċe (“female dog”), from Proto-West Germanic *bikkjā, from Proto-Germanic *bikjǭ (“female dog, bitch”). Cognate with Old Norse bikkja (“female dog”), German Betze (“female dog”). Doublet of bitch, see here for more.

Alternative etymology derives through clipping of barbichon (“small poodle”), a diminutive of barbiche (“shaggy dog”), however, chronology makes this derivation improbable if not impossible, as bichon is attested since 1588, yet barbichon does not appear until 1694.

• IPA^(key): /bi.ʃɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

bichon m (plural bichons, feminine bichonne)

1. bichon
2. lapdog

• bichon à poil frisé
• bichon maltais
• bichonner

• “bichon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.