burgeon

Meanings

Noun

• A bud, sprout, shoot.

Verb

• To grow or expand.
• To swell to the point of bursting.
• Of plants, to bloom, bud.

Origin

• From Middle English burjon, burioun, from Anglo-Norman burjun, burgeon, burgon (compare Old French burjon ("a bud")), from Old Frankish *burjo ("sprout, offshoot, descendant"), from Proto-Germanic *burjô ("sprout, descendant, offshoot"), from Proto-Germanic *burjaną ("to raise up"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-, *bʰrē-. Compare Old High German burjan, burien, burren, Old English byrian ("to come up, occur"), Old English byre ("child, son, descendant"), Albanian buron ("sprout, spring, gush out"). More at bear.
• Alternate etymology derives Old French burjon ("bud") from Vulgar Latin *burrionem, accusative of *burrio, from Late Latin burra ("wool, fluff") (presumably from the down covering certain buds).