A cork or stopper for a bottle; in winemaking, it can also refer to a wine barrel bung or cork plug.
From French 'bouchon,' derived from 'bouche' (mouth) with the suffix '-on' indicating an object. The word originally meant 'something for the mouth' and evolved to mean bottle closures specifically.
French winemakers named the cork stopper 'bouchon'—literally 'for the mouth'—and this seemingly simple word connects to a 400-year history of cork production, terroir, and wine snobbery that still matters today!
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