boucherie

English

Etymology

From French boucherie (“butchershop”), and in American usage (for the event), from Cajun French boucherie.

Noun

boucherie (plural boucheries)

1. A social event at which people gather to butcher and make food from an animal, especially a pig.
   • 1992, C. Paige Gutierrez, Cajun Foodways, Univ. Press of Mississippi, →ISBN, page 118:

     It is not unusual for guests to contribute side dishes at a boucherie or cochon de lait, or to bring beer, or to donate money to help pay for a sack of crawfish. The participants in a boucherie work hard for hours at various tasks, […]

   • 2012 March 13, Susan Straight, Take One Candle Light a Room: A Novel, Anchor, →ISBN, page 128:

     She'd been chopping ribs at a boucherie, when they killed a whole pig with Lanier, who raised hogs on the other side of the river. A lightning strike startled her, and the ax took off part of that finger. Grady's finger.

   • 2020 April 14, Melissa M. Martin, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou, Artisan, →ISBN:

     At a boucherie, animals are slaughtered and readied for sale—and for Cajuns, a day of boucherie is an art form and family affair. This mirrors Acadian life. Every part of the pig is preserved, cooked, or turned into sausages; […]

   • 2020 May 5, Bill Buford, Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking, Vintage, →ISBN:

     In Félines (a river, a waterfall, a church—altitude, 3,000 feet; population, 1,612), we bought charcuterie at a boucherie. The village had two. Few places celebrated the pig more than the Ardèche, Daniel explained.

2. (uncommon) A butchershop, especially one in a French-speaking area, and especially one which specializes in pork.
   • 2020 February 25, Kathy Reichs, Deja Dead: A Novel, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 461:

     Grace Damas had worked at a boucherie. The killer used a chef's saw, knew something about anatomy. Tanguay dissected animals. Maybe there was a link. I looked for the name of the boucherie but couldn't find it.

French

Etymology

From boucher +‎ -erie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buʃ.ʁi/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

boucherie f (plural boucheries)

1. butchershop
2. butchery, butchering (profession of the butcher)
3. (Louisiana) social event at which people gather to slaughter a pig
4. (figuratively) bloodbath, slaughter

   Synonym: carnage

See also

• abattoir
• équarrissoir

Further reading

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