← All words
Dictionary

bagasse

/ba.ɡas/

noun, feminine/ba.ɡas/plural: bagasses

bagasse (residue from processing sugar cane after extracting the juice); residue of indigo after extracting the dye by fermentation

Attested since the 1720s, from Spanish bagazo, from baga (“berry”).

noun, feminine/ba.ɡas/plural: bagasses

a female prostitute

Attested since the 1580s, from Old Occitan bagassa (“whore”), from Gallo-Roman *bacassa ("servant"). Some scholars previously postulated an origin in Arabic بَاغِيَة (bāḡiya, “prostitute”), from بَغَاء (baḡāʔ), but this was doubted by Émile Littré and is now considered unlikely.