Herman Wouk
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Burgeon arrived in Middle English as burjonen, a borrowing from the Anglo-French verb burjuner, meaning "to bud or sprout." Burgeon is often used figuratively, as when writer Ta-Nehisi Coates used it in his 2008 memoir The Beautiful Struggle: "… I was in the burgeoning class of kids whose families made too much for financial aid but not enough to make tuition payments anything less than a war." Usage commentators have objected to the use of burgeon to mean "to flourish" or "to grow rapidly," insisting that any figurative use should stay true to the word's earliest literal meaning and distinguish budding or sprouting from subsequent growing. But the sense of burgeon that indicates growing or expanding and prospering (as in "the burgeoning music scene" or "the burgeoning international market") has been in established use for decades and is, in fact, the most common use of burgeon today.
Examples of burgeon in a Sentence
Matt Rozo, Mercury News, 28 Apr. 2025
In this way, Aube’s winemakers, already under pressure introduced by the freshly formalized terroir boundaries, unwittingly became victims of a burgeoning police surveillance system as well.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 28 Apr. 2025
Combined with David Ricardo (1772-1823), another influential British economist who expounded on the benefits of free trade with his theory of comparative advantage, by the mid-19th century laissez-faire became the central tenet to what was then a burgeoning discipline: economics.
— Made By History, Time, 28 Apr. 2025
Among those who registered at least 65 appearances and averaged 30 minutes per game, Cleveland's burgeoning star ranked in the top five in minimizing opponent's second-chance points, per NBA.com.
—Bobby Krivitsky, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Burgeon.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/burgeon. Accessed 1 May. 2025.
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burgeon
verb
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