Etymology: < French bouillon, < bouillir to boil v.

Etymology: Of obscure etymology. First recorded as Anglo-Norman bullion (see quot. 1336 at sense 1); the form appears to point to identity with French bouillon , medieval Latin bullio ‘boiling’ (compare bullion n.¹), but it does not appear that the word ever had, except in England, any of the senses defined below. If this etymology be correct, the sense of ‘boiling’ must have undergone a purely English development into those of ‘melting’, ‘melted mass of metal’; the applications quoted under bullion n.¹ (which are common to Old French and English) probably furnished the suggestion for this extension of meaning. In Middle Dutch boelioen seems to have had the sense of alloyed gold or silver (compare 3, 4); see Verwijs & Verdam, who however identify the word with billioen , < French billon . The conjecture that bullion is in some way derived < Latin bulla in the sense of seal or stamp appears to fail both with regard to form and meaning. The French billon base metal (see billon n.) is unconnected in origin, but it seems to have influenced sense 4 of the present word; on the other hand, some obsolete senses of French billon seem to have been imitated from those of English bullion.

Etymology: apparently < French boulon (spelt bouillon in Cotgrave), < boule ball; assimilated in form to bullion n.²Previous versions of the OED give the stress as: ˈbullion.

Etymology: probably < French bouillon (see bullion n.¹) in senses derived from that of ‘bubble’: ‘1. Plis bouffants qu'on fait à certains vêtements; 2. Fil d'or ou d'argent tourné en rond’ (Littré).