Meanings
burse1
plural burses
- historicalA purse.
Roche stepped forward with a leather burse, announcing that he would pay for both of us.
1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter IX, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 901 more example
Try a burse instead – sort of a bag, sort of a purse, inspired by the cases that hold the corporal cloth used in mass, and designed to be carried by men.
2021 January 22, The Guardian - A fund or foundation for the maintenance of the needy scholars in their studies.
- ecclesiasticalAn ornamental case to hold the corporal when not in use.
- obsoleteA stock exchange; a bourse.
- obsoleteA kind of bazaar.
Burse2
Origin
- Ancient Greekβύρσα
- Latinbursa
- Old Frenchborse
- Middle Frenchbourse
- Englishburse
Borrowed from Middle French bourse, from Old French borse, from Latin bursa, from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa). Doublet of purse, compare French bourse (“purse, fund”).
More words from Middle French, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with burse
Anagrams
Cite this entry
burse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burse
“burse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burse. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “burse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burse.
Source: burse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.