▪ I. † ˈbullion1 Obs.
Also 5 bolyon.
[a. F. bouillon, f. bouillir to boil.]
a. A boiling, a quantity (of salt, etc.) boiled at one time (OF. boullon de sel, med.L. bullio ‘mensura salinaria’ Du Cange); cf. mod. ‘a boil of soap’. b. A certain quantity of quicksilver; cf. ‘un bouillon de vif argent xxv livres pesant’ (Carpentier s.v. Bullionum).
| 1453 Weighing Charges in Heath Grocers' Comp. (1869) 422 Argent Vyff, ye bolyon..iiijd. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. 575 (D.) In Wich the King and Earle have eight salt pits, which..yeelded on the Friday sixteene Bullions. |
▪ II. bullion2
(ˈbʊlɪən)
Forms: 5 bullioun(e, (Sc. bulȝeon), 6 bolion, -lyon, bulloyn, 6–7 bullyon, 7 bulloin, -oigne, (bullen, bulline), 5– bullion.
[Of obscure etymology. First recorded as AF. bullion (see quot. 1336 in 1); the form appears to point to identity with F. bouillon, med.L. bullio ‘boiling’ (cf. prec.), 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 the preceding n. (which are common to OF. and Eng.) probably furnished the suggestion for this extension of meaning. In MDu. boelioen seems to have had the sense of alloyed gold or silver (cf. 3, 4); see Verwijs & Verdam, who however identify the word with billioen, a. Fr. billon. The conjecture that bullion is in some way derived from L. bulla in the sense of seal or stamp appears to fail both with regard to form and meaning. The Fr. billon base metal (see billon) is unconnected in origin, but it seems to have influenced sense 4 of the present word; on the other hand, some obs. senses of Fr. billon seem to have been imitated from those of Eng. bullion.]
I. 1. ? Melting-house or mint; but the 16th c. legal antiquaries understood it as ‘place of exchange’. (App. only in the Anglo-French Statutes, or the translations of them.)
| 1336 Act 9 Edw. III, ii. §2 Puissent sauvement porter a les eschanges ou bullion..argent en plate, vessel d'argent, etc. 1354 Act 27 Edw. III, ii. §14 Puissent savement porter..plate d'argent, billetes d'or et tut autre maner d'or et toutz moneys d'or et d'argent a nostre bullione ou a nos eschanges. 1632 transl. That all Merchants..may safely carie and bring..all money of gold and siluer to our bullion or to our exchanges which we shall cause to be ordeyned at our said Staples. 1641 Termes de la Ley 43 Bullion..is the place where gold is tryed. 1670 Blount Law Dict., Bullion..signifies..sometimes the Kings Exchange, or place, whither such Gold in the lump is brought to be tryed or exchanged. 1725 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 21 The third part of all the money of silver plate, which shall be brought to the bullion, shall be made into half-pence and farthings. |
II. Precious metal in the mass.
2. Gold or silver in the lump, as distinguished from coin or manufactured articles; also applied to coined or manufactured gold or silver when considered simply with reference to its value as raw material.
| 1451 Sc. Acts Jas. II (1597) §34 Na man haue out of the Realme, gold, siluer, nor Bulȝeon. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714) 115 How Bullion may be brought into this Land. [1477 Act. 17 Edw. IV, i, Toutz gentz en queleconq⊇ Roialme puissent porter a leschaungez come bullion tout maner de bon monoie dargent, de queleconq⊇ value q⊇ fuisse.] 1488 Invent. in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) II. 393 Item twa braid pecis of brynt silver bullioune. 1580 North Plutarch 865 Bringing with him all his plate, both Gold and Silver, unto the Mint-master, he gave it him to put into bullion, and so to be converted into currant coin. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. iv. (1821) 267 All such Moneys be..esteemed for Bullion onely. 1651 Howell Venice 17 Their charge is to look to all sorts of bullions and coines, that they be not embasd and adulterated. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. I. i. 59 The Bullion of neighbour Kingdoms brought to receive a Stamp from the Mint of England. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 39/1 Mettal..which is unwrought is called..of some a Wedge or Bulline. 1725 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 22 All silver money should be taken only as bullion. 1863 Fawcett Pol. Econ. iii. v. (1876) 361 It is unprofitable to melt down our silver coinage, and sell it as bullion. 1868 Rogers Pol. Econ. iv. (1876) 6 The sum..retained by the Bank of England as bullion. |
b. fig.
| 1635 Quarles Embl. ii. xiii. (1718) 114, I cannot serve my God and bullion too. 1832 Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 91 It was tough work for foreign lips to coin the Swiss-German bullion into a circulating medium of communication. |
c. Solid gold or silver (as opposed to mere showy imitations.) Often fig. Also attrib.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. iii. i. 32 All of purest bullion framed were. 1779 Johnson L.P. Wks. 1816 X. 160 The spangles of wit which he could afford he knew how to polish; but he wanted the bullion of his master. 1822 Scott Nigel xiv, Broidery and bullion buttons make bare pouches. a 1834 Coleridge Lit. Rem. (1836) II. 361 There is..weighty bullion Sense in this book. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xlvi, A red neckcloth..with a large pin of bullion or other metal. |
† 3. Impure gold or silver; also fig. and attrib.
| 1616 Bullokar, Bullion, silver unrefined, not yet made into money. 1641 Milton Ch. Discip. ii. (1851) 50 To extract heaps of gold and silver out of the drossie Bullion of the Peoples sinnes. 1667 ― P.L. i. 704 A second multitude..scum'd the Bullion dross. 1820 Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 264 The coarse, heavy, dirty, unwieldy bullion of books, is driven out of the market of learning. |
III. Applied to other metals.
4. † a. Any metal in the lump (obs.). † b. Base metal; = billon (obs.). c. base bullion: formerly = b; mod. in Mining (see quot. 1881).
| c 1590 Marlowe Hero & L. 1, Base bullion for the stamps sake we allow. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. (1621) 261 And those [words], which Elds strict doom did disallow, And damn for bullion, go for current now. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 462 (æris grauis) that is to say..brasse Bullion, or in Masse. 1632 Sherwood Dict., Bullion, Billon. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Base bullion (Pacific), is pig lead containing silver and some gold, which are separated by refining. |
IV. 5. Comb. (sense 2), as bullion-dealer; also bullion-coal, local name of a particular seam; † bullion-heretic (nonce-wd., see quot.).
| 1881 E. Hull Coal-fields Gt. Brit. (ed. 4) 204 Amongst the strata overlying the ‘Upper-foot’, or ‘*Bullion-coal’, marine fossils occur. |
| 1861 N. Brit. Rev. Nov. 358 Will *bullion-dealers refuse to buy gold for us abroad? 1869 Rogers in Adam Smith's W.N. I. Pref. 40 The military chests of Napoleon were supplied by..British bullion dealers. |
| 1662 Thorndike Just Weights vii. §2 They are *bullion-heretics..though not stamped by conviction, and contumacy succeeding, and the declaration of the church upon that. |
▪ III. ˈbullion3
Also 5 bolyon, -en, 6 bulion, bullyon.
[app. a. F. boulon (spelt bouillon in Cotgr.), f. boule ball; assimilated in form to prec.]
† 1. A knob or boss of metal; a convex ornament on a book, girdle, harness, or ring. Also attrib. Obs.
| 1463 in Bury Wills (1850) 36, I beqwethe to Anne Smyth a ryng of gold with bolyonys. 1464 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 254 My mastyr payd to Martyn Goldsmythe, for bolyons gyldynge, ij.s. 1517 in Glasscock Rec. St. Michaels, Bp. Stortford (1882) 35 Item pd for x bolyens and claspis, viijd. 1523 Skelton Garl. Laurel 1165 The claspis and bullyons were worth a thousande pounde. 1538–48 Elyot Dict., Bulla, a bullion sette on the cover of a booke, or other thynge. 1562 Phaër æneid ix. B b ij b, Bulions broad of gold, and girdling girthes miraclose fyne. 1611 Cotgr., Bossette..a bosse or bullion set on a booke. 1706 Phillips, Bullion of Copper is Copper-plates set on the Breast-leathers, or Bridles of Horses for ornament. 1707 Earl of Bindon in Lond. Gaz. No. 4339/3 To Prohibit..all Coachmakers..that they do not use Varnish'd Bullion-Nails. |
2. Bull's eye in glass.
| 1834 Specif. Hartley's Patent No. 6702. 2 When the table of glass is complete there are..more or less waved lines for some inches round the ‘bullion’ or the centre of the table of glass, which lessens the value. 1881 Spons' Encycl. Industr. Arts 1064 Pressing this lump upon an iron point, so as to give it the form of a little cup, he fits it, when thus shaped, on to the bullion-point, to which it soon becomes firmly attached. The lump thus formed is called the ‘bull's-eye’ or ‘bullion’ of the developed plate. 1885 Spons' Mech. Own Bk. 630 ‘Roundels’ and ‘bullions’ are small discs of glass, some made with a knob in the centre, and used in fretwork with cathedral glass. |
† 3. = bolien, bollen n., bulleyn. Obs.
| 1589 Fleming Virg. Georg. i. 9 She [the pine] beareth balls or bullions of chesnut colour. |
4. Comb.: bullion-bar, the bar on or against which the end of the sphere of glass is pressed in blowing crown glass; bullion embroidery (see quot. 1968); bullion knot = bullion stitch; bullion-point, the point or end of a bulb that is being worked on a blow-pipe; also, the thick centre of a disc of blown glass, the bull's-eye; bullion-rod = bullion-bar; bullion stitch (see quot. 1968).
| a 1854 Tomlinson Cycl. Usef. Arts I. 773/2 In again blowing out the bulb, the man supports it on a horizontal smooth iron rod, called the bullion-bar. 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 55 Bullion embroidery, when used for letters and large pieces, is applied to the material, as in appliqué. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet iii. 82 Bullion embroidery is an ancient embroidery done with gold wires instead of threads. |
| 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 55 Bullion knot, useful in crewel and silk embroideries, and largely employed in ancient embroideries for the foliage of trees and shrubs, and the hair of figures. |
| 1881 Bullion-point [see above]. a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Bullion Point (glass), the thick portion at the center of a disk of crown glass. 1890 W. J. Gordon Foundry 143 The globe is heated and again blown, and becomes a Florence flask, the ‘bullion-point’, the apex of the old cone, being still conspicuous. |
| 1862 Chambers's Encycl. IV. 780/1 The workman..next ma[r]vers it, without, however, using the bullion-rod. c 1890 tr. T. de Dillmont's Encycl. Needlework 231 For bullion stitch, select a needle, a little thicker towards the handle, and finer than you would use for any other crochet stitch. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet iii. 82 Bullion-stitch, a decorative stitch formed by twisting the thread several times round the needle before inserting it. |
▪ IV. bullion4
(ˈbʊlɪən)
[prob. a. F. bouillon (see bullion1) 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).]
† 1. More fully bullion-hose: Trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, in several folds. Obs. Cf. bouillon 4.
| 1594 Gesta Gray. in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. III. 341 A bullion-hose is best to goe a woeinge in; for 'tis full of promisinge promontories. 1616 B. Jonson Devil an Ass iii. iii, Not, While you doe eate, and lie, about the towne, here; And coozen i'your bullions. 1622 Fletcher Beggar's Bush iv. iv, His baster'd bullions In a long stock ty'd up. 1632 Massinger & Field Fatal Dow. ii. ii, You shall see him..at noon in the bullion, in the evening in Quirpo. |
2. a. An ornamental fringe made of twists of gold or silver thread. b. A single twist of such fringe. Also attrib. [Prob. now often associated with bullion2 precious metal.]
| 1662 Fuller Worthies i. 247 Bullion, like other Lace, costing nothing safe a little thread. 1702 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. vi. (1743) 416 None might wear silk or costly furring..without license from the king, nor no other persons wear broidery, pearls, or bullion. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. 277 All in a blaze of scarlet and bullion and steel. 1879 Uniform Reg. in Navy List July (1882) 488/2 Epaulettes.—Bullions to be two and three-quarter inches in length and one and one-eighth inch in circumference. 1832 Athenæum No. 221. 42 Richly trimmed with embroidery and bullion fringes. |