Word of the Day

: November 29, 2010

beaucoup

adjective BOH-koo

What It Means

: great in quantity or amount : many, much

beaucoup in Context

The Johnsons clearly spent beaucoup bucks on their new kitchen, but it really did come out beautifully.

"Virtually all of the recommendations in this piece call for a greater role for the government…. But it can't be just the government, since, as our kids might say, we also need beaucoup amounts of enlightened private sector involvement in these efforts." -- From an article by Leo Hindery, Jr., in The Huffington Post, October 26, 2010

Did You Know?

In French, as you may know, "beaucoup" is an adverb meaning "a lot" or "much" (as in "merci beaucoup," meaning "thanks a lot"). "Beaucoup" isn’t used on its own as an adjective in French; if you want to say "many" in French, you would use the phrase "beaucoup de." In other words, you would say "beaucoup de livres" ("a lot of books"), not "beaucoup livres." But French grammar was thrown to the wind when English speakers borrowed this word. "Beaucoup" has been used as a playful slang adjective in English since at least 1918.