bègue

Most likely from Old French beguer, from Middle Dutch beggen (“to chat”) (related to beggaert (“one who rattles off prayers”)). This word itself is of uncertain origin, but could possibly be related to spreken (“to speak, tell”), lacking the initial s and r due to some substrate influence.^[1]

Rejected or unlikely sources of the Middle Dutch word include beige (“wool color”), but the phonetics don’t fit, and French always had /g/ pronunciation instead of /d͡ʒ/ as in Dutch; Medieval Latin Albigenses (“heretic”), but no real phonological or semantic match; and finally the proper name Begga, borne by several pious women, now abandoned as a mere guess.

• IPA^(key): /bɛɡ/

bègue (plural bègues)

1. stuttering, stammering

bègue m or f by sense (plural bègues)

1. stutterer, stammerer

• bégayer

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