Etymology
1. 1595, from M.Fr.
debaucher "entice from work or duty," from O.Fr.
desbaucher "to lead astray," supposedly lit. "to trim (wood) to make a beam" (from
bauch "beam," from Frank.
balk). A sense of "shaving" something away, perhaps, but the root is also said to be a word meaning "workshop," which gets toward the notion of "to lure someone off the job;" either way the sense evolution is unclear.
"Debauchee, n. One who has so earnestly pursued pleasure that he has had the misfortune to overtake it." [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁
4. Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is-
5. Proto-Italic *dis-
6. Latin dis-
7. Old French des-
8. Old French bauche
9. Proto-Italic *-āzi
10. ▲
11. Latin -ereinflu.
12. Latin -āre
13. Old French -ier
14. Old French desbauchier
15. Middle French desbaucherbor.
16. English debauch
17. 1590s, from Middle French desbaucher (“entice from work or duty”), from Old French desbauchier (“to lead astray”), from des- + bauch (“beam”), from Frankish *balkō, from Proto-Germanic *balkô, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, plank”); latter origin of balk.
18. Evolution of sense unclear; may be literally “to shave/trim wood to make a beam” or may be “to leave/lure someone from a workshop”, Frankish *balkō perhaps also meaning “workshop”.
19. Possible corruption by way of Anglicised French term bord (“edge, curb”): curb crawling as a synonym for prostitution. Parallels in modern German: Bordsteinschwalbe (“prostitute”, literally “Curb-stone-swallow”). English words bawd, bawdiness may be similarly connected. See: Middle French '
desbaucher', Old French '
desbauchier'.