bidon

See also: bidón

English

WOTD – 6 July 2022

Etymology

A bidon (sense 1) mounted on a bicycle.

Borrowed from French bidon (“can, canister, tin”), from Middle French bidon (“small sealed portable container made of metal or wood”), from Old Norse *biða (“container, vessel”), from Proto-Germanic *bidōn, *bidjan (“tub, vat; vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰidʰ- (“barrel; bucket; pot”), from *bʰeydʰ- (“to bind; to weave”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbiːdɒn/, /-dɒ̃/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbidɑn/
• Hyphenation: bi‧don

Noun

bidon (plural bidons)

1. A bottle or flask for holding a beverage such as water or wine; (specifically, sports) a water bottle which can be squeezed to squirt the beverage out of the nozzle, especially (cycling) one designed for mounting on a bicycle.

   Hypernym: sports bottle

   • 1922, E[dward] E[stlin] Cummings, “A Pilgrim’s Progress”, in The Enormous Room, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, →OCLC, page 48:

     I was awakened by a noise of eating. My protectors, knife in hand, were consuming their meat and bread, occasionally tilting their bidons on high and absorbing the thin streams which spurted therefrom. […] The older [man] appeared pleased with my appetite; his face softened still more, as he remarked: "Bread without wine doesn't taste good," and proffered his bidon. I drank as much as I dared, and thanked him: "Ça va mieux."

   • 2006 July 15, “Tour de France 2006: Life is rarely dull among the bottle-carriers and peloton pushers”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 March 2016:

     […] Bram De Groot, a domestique with the Dutch Rabobank team, drops out the back, one arm in the air. The team car responds instantly, swinging out of the line of support vehicles behind the peloton and racing, klaxon sounding, up to De Groot. The window opens and a hand emerges with a bidon (plastic drinks bottle). De Groot places it in his back pocket and the hand emerges with another. This one goes down the back of his shirt, and it is joined by five more. Then off he sprints to deliver them to thirsty team-mates. De Groot is one of the domestiques and this is their lot. They continually drop off, collecting bidons and sprinting back into the peloton with grotesquely bulging shirts.

2. (archaic) A container for holding a liquid.
   1. A cup made of wood.
      • 1867, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], “L’Amie du Drapeau”, in Under Two Flags: A Story of the Household and the Desert. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 13–14:

        ["]Take a draught of my burgundy; bright as rubies. I never sell bad wines;—not I!—I know better than to drink them myself." He started and rose; and before he took the bidon [footnote †: “Little wooden drinking-cup.”], bowed to her, raising his cap with a grave courteous obeisance; a bow that had used to be noted in throne-rooms for its perfection of grace.

      • 1867, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], “The Leathern Zackrist”, in Under Two Flags: A Story of the Household and the Desert. […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 53–54:

        He took the bowl [containing red wine with bread broken in it] from her hands, and emptying a little of it into the wooden bidon that hung to her belt, kept that for himself, and stretching his arm across the straw, gave the bowl to Zackrist, who had watched it with the longing ravenous eyes of a starving wolf, and seized it with rabid avidity.

   2. An oil drum; a petrol can.

      (petrol can): Synonym: jerrycan

      • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XV, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, pages 115–116:

        I saw that she had picked up an empty oil bidon that had been lying in the corner. I had bought it weeks before, for an oil lamp I had before I sold my things. […] They always make you pay a deposit on the bidon, and you get it back when the bidon is returned. But I'd forgotten all about it. […] She grabbed the bidon and went clattering down the stairs like a herd of elephants, and in three minutes she was back with two pounds of bread under one arm and a half-litre bottle of wine under the other.

Related terms

• bidonville

Translations

bottle or flask for holding a beverage; water bottle, especially one designed for mounting on a bicycle

• Czech: bidon (cs) m
• Dutch: bidon (nl) m
• Finnish: juomapullo
• French: bidon (fr) m
• Galician: botella (gl) f
• Khmer: ប៊ីដុង (km) (biidong)
• Polish: bidon (pl) m
• Romanian: bidon (ro) n
• Spanish: bidón (es) m
• Vietnamese: bi-đông

container for holding a liquid

• Azerbaijani: bidon, qıf (az)
• Czech: bidon (cs) m (dated, rare)
• Finnish: juomapullo, juoma-astia (fi)
• Galician: bidón m
• Greek: μπιτόνι (el) n (bitóni)
• Italian: bidone (it) m
• Moore: bidu
• Portuguese: bidão m
• Russian: бидо́н (ru) m (bidón)
• Spanish: bidón (es) m

Further reading

• glossary of cycling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• water bottle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• bidon (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Bodin, Bondi, dob in

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from French bidon.

Noun

bidon m inan

1. bidon, occasionally also: a sports bottle
2. (dated, rare) jerrycan
3. (dated, rare) canteen (a water bottle used by a soldier)

Declension

Declension of bidon (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	bidon	bidony
genitive	bidonu	bidonů
dative	bidonu	bidonům
accusative	bidon	bidony
vocative	bidone	bidony
locative	bidonu	bidonech
instrumental	bidonem	bidony

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French bidon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biˈdɔn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bi‧don
• Rhymes: -ɔn

Noun

bidon m (plural bidons, diminutive bidonnetje n)

1. a bidon; a sports drinking bottle, especially one used on a bicycle

Derived terms

• bidonhouder

References

• [3][4]

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French bidon (“small portable container, sealed and made of wood or metal”), from Old Norse bida, *biða (“container, vessel”), from Proto-Germanic *bidōn, *bidjan (“tub, vessel, vat”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰidʰ- (“pot, bucket, barrel”), from *bʰeydʰ- (“to weave, bind”).

Cognate with Icelandic biða (“milkbucket”), Norwegian bide (“churn”), Norwegian bidne (“vessel”), Latin fidēlia (“clay or glass vessel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.dɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔ̃

Noun

bidon m (plural bidons)

1. can, tin, canister
   1. milk carton
   2. water bottle
2. (childish) tummy

Descendants

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: бидо́н (bidón)
• → Catalan: bidó
• → Greek: μπιτόνι (bitóni)
• → English: bidon
• → Galician: bidón
• → Italian: bidone
• → Khmer: ប៊ីដុង (biidong)
• → Polish: bidon
• → Portuguese: bidão
• → Romanian: bidon
• → Russian: бидо́н (bidón)
  • → Yakut: бидон (bidon)
• → Spanish: bidón
• → Turkish: bidon
• → Vietnamese: bi-đông

Adjective

bidon (invariable)

1. (slang) rigged

   La course de chevaux est bidon.

   The horse race is rigged.

2. (slang) phoney, sham

   Ces cris et ces pleurs sont bidon puisqu’elle ne l’aimait pas.

   These cries and tears are phoney because she didn't love him.

3. (slang) crap

   Ce film est complètement bidon.

   This film is complete crap.

Derived terms

• bidonville

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• bondi

Kabuverdianu

Etymology

From Portuguese bidão.

Noun

bidon

1. drum

References

• Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN
• Veiga, Manuel (2012) Dicionário Caboverdiano-Português, Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional e do Livro

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbidon/

Verb

bidon

1. preterite plural of bīdan

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from French bidon. First attested in 1864.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbi.dɔn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -idɔn
• Syllabification: bi‧don

Noun

bidon m inan

1. water bottle, canister, bidon

   wypić bidon czegoś ― to drink a water bottle of something

   plastikowy bidon ― a plastic water bottle

   pusty bidon ― an empty water bottle

   nalać czegoś do bidonu ― to fill a water bottle with something

   pić z bidonu ― to drink from a water bottle

Declension

Declension of bidon

	singular	plural
nominative	bidon	bidony
genitive	bidonu	bidonów
dative	bidonowi	bidonom
accusative	bidon	bidony
instrumental	bidonem	bidonami
locative	bidonie	bidonach
vocative	bidonie	bidony

Further reading

• bidon in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• bidon in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French bidon, Italian bidone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /biˈdon/

Noun

bidon n (plural bidoane)

1. can, tin, canister

   Synonym: (regional) matara

2. a canteen (a water bottle used by a soldier)
3. a water bottle
4. (plural only, slang) jugs, cans, breasts

Declension

Declension of bidon

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) bidon	bidonul	(niște) bidoane	bidoanele
genitive/dative	(unui) bidon	bidonului	(unor) bidoane	bidoanelor
vocative	bidonule		bidoanelor

Related terms

• bidonvil

See also

• ploscă

References

• bidon in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)