bahut

Borrowed from French bahut, of unknown origin.

bahut (plural bahuts)

1. (obsolete) A portable coffer or chest with a rounded lid covered in leather, garnished with nails, once used for the transport of clothes or other personal luggage. It was the original portmanteau.
2. (obsolete, architecture) A dwarf-wall of plain masonry, carrying the roof of a cathedral or church and masked or hidden behind the balustrade.

Towards the end of the 17th century, the name fell into disuse and was replaced by coffer, which probably accounts for its misuse by the French romantic writers of the early 19th century. They applied it to almost any antique sideboard, cupboard or wardrobe, and its use became hopelessly confused.

• Bahut in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• thaub

Origin unknown, most hypotheses being weak in one respect or another (cf. Further reading below). Compare Italian baule, Ladino baul, Portuguese baú.

• IPA^(key): /ba.y/

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bahut m (plural bahuts)

1. chest; sideboard
2. (school slang) school
3. (colloquial) lorry, truck; (taxi) cab

• “bahut” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).