‖ Bonhomme
(bɔnɔm)
Also 6–7 bon-, bonehome.
[Fr.; = good man.]
† 1. A member of an order of begging friars who came over to England in the 13th c.
| c 1526 Pynson (title) The Extirpacion of Ignorancy. By Sir Paule Bussle preest and Bonhome of Edyndon. 1530 Palsgr. 199/2 Bonhom a religious man, bonhomme. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 244 William de Edindon..erected a Colledge Bonis hominibus, Bon-homes, as they called them, that is for good men. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. vi. III. 278. a 1697 Aubrey Wilts Coll. in Sat. Rev. (1864) XVIII. 462/1 This Country was very full of Religious Howses; a man could not have travelled but he must have mett Monkes, Fryars, Bonhommes..in their severall habits. |
† b. A member of a reformed order of Franciscan friars, said by Littré to owe their name to the appellation Bonhomme given by Louis XI. to St. Francis de Paule, their founder; a friar minim.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Bonhomes, a religious order of Fryers entituled by Saint Francis de Paulo. 1678 Phillips, Bon⁓hommes..were also called Fryer Minims, or Minorites. |
† 2. A name given to the Albigenses. Obs.
| 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Albigenses, They were also known by various other names; as..Bons-hommes, Passagers, etc. |
‖ 3. A peasant. Jacques Bonhomme: the French peasant.
| 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. (1864) III. 2 The bon-homme Sperling..and house-folk, and the Duke and his circle each kept themselves to themselves. |