This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
requête en omission de statuer
prix de cession

Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

bourreau

English translation:

executioner

Added to glossary by Stephanie Ezrol
Apr 5, 2011 17:01
13 yrs ago
3 viewers *
French term

bourreau

French to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters a story set in France in the early 1700s
This term comes up a few times, and in this context I don't think it is an executioner or a hangman in any literal sense of the word. I know that people were executed in the 16th century for their writings in France, but I don't think this happened in the 1730s -- so that's why I don't think the proper translation would be the dictionary defintions. I could be wrong. Any help is appreciated.

It is describing a French government official involved in censorship/suppressing unwanted literature, but probably not the chief government censor.

Here's the full sentence:

Derriere l'atrroupement se trouve un bourreau qui jetter de numbreux exemplaire d'une meme livre dans un feu.

There is not a further description of the bourreau or his functions. This is a street scene witnessed by one of the story's protagonists who is worried/concerned/unhappy about this activitiy.
Proposed translations (English)
4 executioner
4 enforcer
3 "scourge" or "tormentor"
3 justiciary
3 henchman
3 henchman
3 Book burner
3 overzealous petty official
2 barbarian

Discussion

Stephanie Ezrol (asker) Apr 6, 2011:
The name may be being used figuratively, but that is the point of my throwing out the question. Some sources I looked at say that the auto-da-fe orginally burnt books before it was used to burn people. So perhaps this fellow had both jobs. I also know that the term is used in a general sense as a pejorative; but there were also people in this period like Joseph de Maistre who were strong advocates of the role of the executioner/bourreau in maintaining order in society.
Carol Gullidge Apr 6, 2011:
burnt at the stake don't forget that Joan of Arc was executed by being burnt at the stake - albeit some time earlier
Kirsten Bodart Apr 6, 2011:
Figurative Is it not possible that, in this case, the name 'bourreau' has been applied figuratively as a murderer of books, essentially knowledge, as one who replaces the king as Justice basically? The French wikipedia entry on the profession does not indicate that executioners did anything else but stocks, torture and decapitation in all its forms. If anything, the image even recalls the fact that people should shun this man from society because he is an executioner (see wikipedia on his exclusion from society). That he is the lowest you can get in terms of human being. Certainly if book burning is also called 'libricide', we can see where the executioner fits in.
Alan Douglas (X) Apr 6, 2011:
Henchman? Henchman (en) = homme de main, écuyer (squire, page).
See also: http://littre.reverso.net/dictionnaire-francais/definition/b... - "valet de bourreau", homme qui aide le burreau dans les éxecutions. He could be described as the henchman or assistant of the "bourreau".
Alan Douglas (X) Apr 6, 2011:
Justiciary? www.yourdictionary.com/justiciary -
justiciary (en) = justicier (fr)
1. The chief political and judicial officer under Norman and early Plantagenate kings.
2. ARCHAIC. One who administers justice as a judge.
Is this really the sense here?
chris collister Apr 5, 2011:
In Fahrenheit 451 the official state book burners were (ironically) called firemen. But probably not in 18th century France...
Stephanie Ezrol (asker) Apr 5, 2011:
That is the period during the reign of Louis XV. I don't know if it the term that the victims of the book burning would use to refer to the guy who burned the books, or if it the term was used by the government for the book burning guy. The story takes place in Paris.
Carol Gullidge Apr 5, 2011:
The Enlightenment? Could this be about the censorship that took place during the Enlightenment? Anti-establishment and anticlerical, etc, books were confiscated and burnt. I believe the Encyclopédie, or parts of it, itself only narrowly escaped the bonfire.
Stephanie Ezrol (asker) Apr 5, 2011:
You may be right. I understand the concept. Here is one more sentence, "Le bourreau brule vos livres. Ils vont venir vous arreter !" I thought it just might be possible there is a different more specific meaning re: the individual who did the book burnings in those days.
polyglot45 Apr 5, 2011:
the guy is described as a bourreau because, by throwing the books in the fire, he is condemning them to death - it is an image. You might even like to keep the image of the "executioner"

Proposed translations

18 hrs
Selected

executioner

Figurative use.
Something went wrong...
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I used the term executioner. However it may be also in the literal sense, i.e. the same person or the same office in charge of both: burning books or executing people. The auto da fe does seem to have burned both books and people."
28 mins

"scourge" or "tormentor"


"bourreau" translated as "tormentor"
Source: Harrap's French-English dictionary 2000

"scourge"
found by looking for synonyms for "tormentor" on www.thesaurus.com
Something went wrong...
20 mins

justiciary

*zealot?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 minutes (2011-04-05 17:22:08 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

*castigator?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 47 minutes (2011-04-05 17:48:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

justiciary : administrator of justice

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 48 minutes (2011-04-05 17:49:36 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

http://classic.net.bible.org/lexicon.php?word=justiciary
Note from asker:
Do you have anything more on justiciary?
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

henchman

one definition of this is
"an unscrupulous and ruthless subordinate,..."
i.e. someone who is prepared to 'execute' the dirty work.

I wonder why there are so many mistakes in the rest of the French sentence ...
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

henchman

this might cover the idea (although why is the rest of the sentence so full of French mistakes ?!)
one definition of 'henchman' is "an unscrupulous and ruthless subordinate"
Like an executioner, someone prepared to do the dirty work (i.e. presumably following orders, not necessarily on his initiative). And perhaps henchman conveys enough disapproval, shock, etc.
Something went wrong...
48 mins

barbarian

Bourreau :
Exécuteur des hautes-oeuvres, des arrêts rendus en matière criminelle, notamment la peine de mort.
Meurtrier, homme cruel, barbare.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2011-04-05 19:56:48 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person.
Something went wrong...
2 hrs

Book burner

Seeing as book burning has been done by a whole range of different types of people/professions, for different reasons over the years there is probably not one simple term for it. I don't know if saying "executioner" or "henchman", the standard translations for this word would work in English. However, I think the coarsness and barbarism of the act is still conveyed by using this simplistic idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-05 22:14:44 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I just think that although the idea of "executioner" is removed from this term, it still has just as sinister a tone to it when used in English.
For example:
"[...] Mona ElTahawy does not welcome a book burner into the UNESCO: What does a security crackdown resembling Saudi-style morality policing have to do with the U.N. [...]"
http://www.monaeltahawy.com/blog/?p=160
I get the same adverse and spine tingling feeling when I see book burner, as when I see "book executioner".

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2011-04-05 22:17:41 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I think the ideas is implicit in the connotations of the word. So when I say "simplistic" I mean that in English, do we really need to go all the way and talk about executioners, butchers or tormentors (http://www.wordreference.com/fren/bourreau) when we could a similar amount of dread from a more basic and descriptive term.
Peer comment(s):
neutral ormiston : you yourself admit it is 'simplistic'
22 mins
I didn't mean in the sense of "over-simplified". I meant rather than using a specific or clever word which might not carry across languages, something basic and essential might still work// I was also not trying to demote any other suggestions.
neutral Alan Douglas (X) : Stating the obvious?
15 hrs
It sometimes helps to state the obvious if being specific is not possible - it's just an option.
Something went wrong...
17 hrs

enforcer

This is the best dictionary definition that I have come across for bourreau:

http://littre.reverso.net/dictionnaire-francais/definition/b...

Specifically:
1. Celui qui inflige les peines corporelles qu’ordonnent les arrêts rendus en matière criminelle. Livré au bourreau. Livre brulé par le bourreau.

Also:
www.linternaute.com
Bourreau
Sens 1 : personne chargée de mettre à mort les condamnés. Synonyme : exécuteur.
Anglais : executioner.
Sens 2 : personne cruelle (figuré). Synonyme : sadique.

Following the trail with Harrap’s Unabridged Pro:
exécuteur is a synonyme for bourreau. Apart from figurative options, it can be translated as both executioner and enforcer. It is the latter, enforcer, that makes the most sense here. It properly conveys the sense of menace and cruelty but also enforcement/execution in the sense of carrying out an act pursuant to a judgement or decree.
Something went wrong...
10 days

overzealous petty official

I believe the sense of 'bourreau' in this case connotes a person acting in an official capacity, but someone undistinguised doing low-grade work. Burning several copies implies he takes his pitiful work very seriously. I don't read this as a freelancer, in any case.
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search