Forms: 4 bugee, -eye, 5 boge, bogey, 6 bogy, bug(g)e, buggye, Sc. buge, 7 budg, 9 boodge, 6– budge. [Etymology obscure; usually identified with BUDGE sb.3, BOUGE sb.1, a leather bag; but the connection of sense is not clear, and most of the early forms seem to indicate a dissyllabic etymon. If the original sense were ‘kid-skin with the hair’ (see quot. 1616), the OF. bouchet, bochet a kid, might be thought of; cf. ‘budge of court’ from F. bouche under BOUGE sb.2]
1. A kind of fur, consisting of lamb’s skin with the wool dressed outwards.
1382. Pol. Poems (1859), I. 265. Somme frers beren peluse aboute … Al after that thai ere … For somme bugee, and for somme byse.
1395. Determin. Feast, in Rogers, Agric. & Prices, II. 647. De xxxix furruris pro capuciis de Bugeye.
1465. Paston Lett., xcix. I. 134. Ij. gounes, one furryd with bogey.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. Prol. 58. Byand byssely, and bane, buge, beuir and bice.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., xiii. No man, vnder the saide estates … shall weare any furre … except foynes, genets … and Bogy.
c. 1570. Thynne, Pride & Lowl. (1841), 32. A gowne Of fine blacke cloth, and faced faire with budge.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Agneau, Blanche d’agneaux, the furre called, white Lambe, or, white Budge.
1616. Bullokar, Budge, a furre of a kinde of kid in other countries.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 305. Furred with Coney, lambskinne, and budge.
1721. C. King, Brit. Merch., I. 288. Budge and Goat Skins.
a. 1859. De Quincey, Whiggism, Wks. VI. 115, note. Budge is a species of fur.
2. attrib. and Comb., as in budge-face, -fur, -gown, -skin; budge-bachelor, one of a company dressed in gowns trimmed with budge, who took part in the procession on Lord Mayor’s Day (see BACHELOR 2). (For budge-doctor, etc., see BUDGE a.)
1466. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 371. My mastyr bout of hym vj. boge scynnes prise iiij.s.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 1070. In the stede of a budge furre.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, III. x. 222. Poore budge face, bowcase sleeue, but let him passe, Once furre and beard shall priuiledge an Asse.
1649. Milton, Observ. Art. Peace, Wks. 1738, I. 355. To part freely with their own Budge-gowns.
1680. T. Jordan, London’s Glory, 13. In the Rear of them … hastens the Foins and Budge-Batchelors together with the Gentlemen-Ushers to Guild-Hall.
1706. Phillips, Budge-Bachelers, a Company of poor old Men Cloath’d in long Gowns, lin’d with Lambs-furr, who attend upon the Lord Mayor of the City of London, during the Solemnity of the Publick Shew.
