Forms: 5 bullioun(e, (Sc. bulȝeon), 6 bolion, -lyon, bulloyn, 6–7 bullyon, 7 bulloin, -oigne, (bullen, bulline), 5– bullion. [Of obscure etymology. First recorded as AF. bullion (see quot. 1336 in 1); the form appears to point to identity with F. bouillon, med.L. bullio ‘boiling’ (cf. prec.), but it does not appear that the word ever had, except in England, any of the senses defined below. If this etymology be correct, the sense of ‘boiling’ must have undergone a purely English development into those of ‘melting,’ ‘melted mass of metal’; the applications quoted under the preceding sb. (which are common to OF. and Eng.) probably furnished the suggestion for this extension of meaning. In MDu. boelioen seems to have had the sense of alloyed gold or silver (cf. 3, 4); see Verwijs & Verdam, who however identify the word with billioen, a. Fr. billon. The conjecture that bullion is in some way derived from L. bulla in the sense of seal or stamp appears to fail both with regard to form and meaning. The Fr. billon base metal (see BILLON) is unconnected in origin, but it seems to have influenced sense 4 of the present word; on the other hand, some obs. senses of Fr. billon seem to have been imitated from those of Eng. bullion.]
I. 1. ? Melting-house or mint; but the 16th-c. legal antiquaries understood it as ‘place of exchange.’ (App. only in the Anglo-French Statutes, or the translations of them.)
1336. Act 9 Edw. III., ii. § 2. Puissent sauvement porter a les eschanges ou bullion … argent en plate, vessel d’argent, [etc.].
1354. Act 27 Edw. III., ii. § 14. Puissent savement porter … plate d’argent, billetes d’or et tut autre maner d’or et toutz moneys d’or et d’argent a nostre bullione ou a nos eschanges. 1632, transl. That all Merchants … may safely carie and bring … all money of gold and siluer to our bullion or to our exchanges which we shall cause to be ordeyned at our said Staples.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 43. Bullion … is the place where gold is tryed.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., Bullion … signifies … sometimes the Kings Exchange, or place, whither such Gold in the lump is brought to be tryed or exchanged.
1725. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1755, V. II. 21. The third part of all the money of silver plate, which shall be brought to the bullion, shall be made into half-pence and farthings.
II. Precious metal in the mass.
2. Gold or silver in the lump, as distinguished from coin or manufactured articles; also applied to coined or manufactured gold or silver when considered simply with reference to its value as raw material.
1451. Sc. Acts Jas. II. (1597), § 34. Na man haue out of the Realme, gold, siluer, nor Bulȝeon.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 115. How Bullion may be brought into this Land.
[1477. Act 17 Edw. IV., i. Toutz gentz en queleconqe Roialme puissent porter a leschaungez come bullion tout maner de bon monoie dargent, de queleconqe value qe fuisse.]
1488. Invent., in Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), II. 393. Item twa braid pecis of brynt silver bullioune.
1580. North, Plutarch, 865. Bringing with him all his plate, both Gold and Silver, unto the Mint-master, he gave it him to put into bullion, and so to be converted into currant coin.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., iv. (1821), 267. All such Moneys be … esteemed for Bullion onely.
1651. Howell, Venice, 17. Their charge is to look to all sorts of bullions and coines, that they be not embasd and adulterated.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. 59. The Bullion of neighbour Kingdoms brought to receive a Stamp from the Mint of England.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 39/1. Mettal … which is unwrought is called … of some a Wedge or Bulline.
1725. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1755, V. II. 22. All silver money should be taken only as bullion.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., III. v. (1876), 361. It is unprofitable to melt down our silver coinage, and sell it as bullion.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., iv. (1876), 6. The sum … retained by the Bank of England as bullion.
b. fig.
1635. Quarles, Embl., II. xiii. (1718), 114. I cannot serve my God and bullion too.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 91. It was tough work for foreign lips to coin the Swiss-German bullion into a circulating medium of communication.
c. Solid gold or silver (as opposed to mere showy imitations). Often fig. Also attrib.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., III. i. 32. All of purest bullion framed were.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Wks. 1816, X. 160. The spangles of wit which he could afford he knew how to polish; but he wanted the bullion of his master.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xiv. Broidery and bullion buttons make bare pouches.
a. 1834. Coleridge, Lit. Rem. (1836), II. 361. There is … weighty bullion Sense in this book.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xlvi. A red neckcloth … with a large pin of bullion or other metal.
† 3. Impure gold or silver; also fig. and attrib.
1616. Bullokar, Bullion, silver unrefined, not yet made into money.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., II. (1851), 50. To extract heaps of gold and silver out of the drossie Bullion of the Peoples sinnes. Ibid. (1667), P. L., I. 704. A second multitude … scum’d the Bullion dross.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 264. The coarse, heavy, dirty, unwieldy bullion of books, is driven out of the market of learning.
III. Applied to other metals.
4. † a. Any metal in the lump (obs.). † b. Base metal; = BILLON (obs.). c. Base bullion: formerly = b; mod. in Mining (see quot. 1881).
c. 1590. Marlowe, Hero & L., I. Base bullion for the stamps sake we allow.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. II. ii. (1621), 261. And those [words], which Elds strict doom did disallow, And damn for bullion, go for current now.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 462. (Æris grauis) that is to say … brasse Bullion, or in Masse.
1632. Sherwood, Dict., Bullion, Billon.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Base bullion (Pacific), is pig lead containing silver and some gold, which are separated by refining.
IV. 5. Comb. (sense 2), as bullion-dealer; also bullion-coal, local name of a particular seam; † bullion-heretic (nonce-wd., see quot.).
1881. E. Hull, Coal-fields Gt. Brit. (ed. 4), 204. Amongst the strata overlying the ‘Upper-foot,’ or *‘Bullion-coal,’ marine fossils occur.
1861. N. Brit. Rev., Nov., 358. Will *bullion-dealers refuse to buy gold for us abroad?
1869. Rogers, in Adam Smith’s W. N., I. Pref. 40. The military chests of Napoleon were supplied by … British bullion dealers.
1662. H. Thorndike, Just Weights, vii. § 2. They are *bullion-heretics … though not stamped by conviction, and contumacy succeeding, and the declaration of the church upon that.
