début

• debut
• débute (verb only)

Borrowed from French début, from débuter (“begin, start, lead off”).[1]

• (French) IPA^(key): /deby/[1][2]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdeɪbuː/[1], /ˈdeɪbjuː/[1]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /deɪˈbju/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

début (plural débuts)

1. (chiefly of public perfomers)[1] A person’s or thing’s first appearance before society or another audience; one’s “maiden voyage”.[1]

début (third-person singular simple present débuts, present participle débuting, simple past and past participle débuted)

1. To make one's début.[1]

• (applicable to all senses) On first reading by a person unfamiliar with this term, debut may be mispronounced [dɪˈbʌt] (cf. rebut) if it is written without the disambiguating acute accent.

• débutant (masculine agent noun)
• débutante (feminine agent noun)

• The Oxford English Dictionary defines début but does not list debut.

• tubed

From Middle French, derivative of desbuter (“to move, begin”), from des- + but (“mark, goal”), from Old French but (“aim, goal, end, target”), either from Old French butte (“mound, knoll, target”), from Frankish *but (“stump, log”), or from Old Norse bútr (“log, stump, butt”); both from Proto-Germanic *butą (“end, piece”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to beat, push”).[1] Cognate with Old English butt (“tree stump”). More at English butt.

• IPA^(key): /de.by/

• audio

  (file)

début m (plural débuts)

1. start, beginning

• débutant
• débutante
• débuter
• faire ses débuts

• → German: Debüt
• → English: début, debut
• → Italian: debutto

• “début” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).