poubelle

See also: Poubelle

English

Etymology

From French poubelle.

Noun

poubelle (plural poubelles)

1. (rare) A garbage can.
   • 1977, Diana Mosley, “A Vale of Tears”, in A Life of Contrasts: The Autobiography of Diana Mitford Mosley, New York, N.Y.: Times Books, →ISBN, page 277:

     Everyone sent her books, knowing how she dreaded a bookless day; Heywood Hill’s, Hamish Hamilton, friends and relations and writers, but she was not always pleased. ‘I can’t think what’s come over the shop, she used to say. (Heywood Hill was always ‘the shop’.) ‘How can they imagine I’m going to read this?’ and into the poubelle went the offerings.

   • 2002, David Bouchier, “The Wonderful Invention of Monsieur Poubelle”, in The Cats and the Water Bottles and Other Mysteries of French Village Life, New York, N.Y.: ASJA Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, part I (Village Life), page 38:

     Whenever I set off down the street with the blue bag, I would say: “Just going out to the poubelle.” And so I always remembered the jolly, brave Prefect of Paris [Eugène Poubelle], who made it all possible.

   • 2013 April, Thomas Fuller, “Robaire Walks Like a Surrealist, Begins to Go Crazy”, in Monsieur Ambivalence: A Post Literate Fable, San Francisco, Calif.: IF SF Publishing, →ISBN, book 3, page 83:

     He's stopped making paintings, giving them away or taking them out of their frames and dragging them downhill to poubelle, stacking the little canvases against the large green container.

   • 2015, Mark Haubrick, “Day 90”, in Where’s Ya Bin? Across Europe!, Guildford, Surrey: Grosvenor House Publishing Limited, →ISBN, page 121:

     It was part of a shopping centre, and as I entered, I went straight to a burly security guard, to ask if there was a restaurant, and more importantly, to let him know who the blue poubelle waiting outside belonged to!

   • 2016, Susunaga Weeraperuma, “Annette of Les Arcs”, in Various Kinds of Women: Short Stories, New Delhi: Satyam Books Pvt. Ltd., →ISBN, page 46:

     Why don’t both of you grow up and put religion into the poubelle?

French

Etymology

From the surname Poubelle, named after Eugène Poubelle, prefect of the Seine (i.e. chief administrator of Paris), who promulgated an ordinance in 1884 that all apartments should have trash cans.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pu.bɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

poubelle f (plural poubelles)

1. rubbish bin, garbage can

   Synonym: boite à ordures

2. rubbish

   Synonyms: ordures, déchets

Derived terms

• camion poubelle
• poub
• radio poubelle

 

Further reading

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