béguin

Colloquial French béguin (“bonnet”). The verb embéguiner (“to wear a bonnet”) came to mean ‘to have a crush on someone’. The word itself came from beguine (lay nuns who typically wore such bonnets).

• IPA^(key): /beɡiːn/

béguin (plural béguins)

1. An infatuation or fancy.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 51

     Then he said: 'But what does Ata say to it?' 'It appears that she has a beguin for you,' I said. 'She's willing if you are. Shall I call her?'

   • 1972, ‘I see now. And you have a béguin for her too? It is no use, I warn you.’ (O'Brian, Post-Captain)

• Bungie

• IPA^(key): /be.ɡɛ̃/

From Old French beguin.

béguin m (plural béguins, feminine béguine)

1. (historical) Beghard, Beguin (religious laymen living in semimonastic communities in imitation of the Beguines)

   Synonyms: bégard, béguard

• béguinage

béguin m (plural béguins)

1. A type of headwear once popular with Beguines, similar to a bonnet.

From embéguiner.

béguin m (plural béguins)

1. (informal) crush, fancy (a short-lived and unrequited love or infatuation)

   J'ai le béguin pour elle. ― I've got a crush on her.

2. (informal) crush (person with whom one is infatuated)

   C'est mon béguin. ― She's my crush.

• → English: béguin

• béguin on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr
• “béguin” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).