DCHP-3

brûlée

> Canadian French brûlé, brûlis
DCHP-2 (Nov 2012)

Spelling variants:
brûlé, brule, brulee

n. — Forestry, obsolete

an area of burnt forest or swamp.

Type: 1. Origin — The term brûlée describes an area of forest that has been 'destroyed by fire' (see Gage-5, s.v. "brule"). Brûlées are large areas (see the 1881 quotation) with a multitude of blackened stumps (see the 1900 and 1942 quotations). DA's earliest attestation of the term describes a brûlée as "a large clearing apparently made by fire and which the Canadians would call a Grand-Brule" (see the second 1793 quotation). The term appears also to apply to burnt swampland (see DARE, s.v. "brule"). The term derives from the Canadian French term "bruler", which means 'to burn', and has likely come into English via Quebec French, though the term had currency in American English as well. DARE, s.v. "brulé" (1), dates its first attestation to 1834, while OED-3 only lists the sense related to cuisine (s.v. "brûlée (n.), (v.)).
See also Gage-1, s.v. "brule", which is marked "Cdn", ITP Nelson, s.v. "brulee", which is marked "Canadian".
See: brulé

Quotations

1793
This brulé came to the water's edge about two miles below the bank above mentioned.
1793
At intervals through the pines we could see like a large clearing apparently made by fire and which the Canadians would call a Grand-Brulé.
1809
They came through dreadful country on the N. side, covered with thick woods, brûlés, and renversés.
1824
Got out of the new burnt ground & into an old Brule [...]
1873
Thick with brulé and tangled forest lay the base of the mountain [...]
1881
The conflagration which swept over it occurred six years ago, and was extensive. At one time, Mr. Niven says, the brule was to be seen six miles on every side of him. The spectacle was a strange one.
1886
Westward from Port Arthur there is a great deal of good land called "Brule," or land over which the fire has run several times clearing it of the timber and which quickly covers itself with a thick covering of grass.
1900
[...] the brule, as we used to call it, where the pine-stumps, huge and blackened, were half-hidden [...]
1901
For while in spring and summer they farmed their narrow fields, and rescued new lands from the brûle [...]
1942
"It would be better if those stumps were cleared out of the brulé," she considered.
1959
[...] the man of the house spends days in the bush [...] following bear tracks into les brules (burnt-out areas) where blueberries grow thickest.

References

  • ITP Nelson
  • DARE
  • Gage-5
  • DCHP-1
  • OED-3
  • Gage-1
  • DA