A variant spelling of bougie; a wax candle or a small surgical instrument used to dilate or explore body cavities.
From French 'bougie,' originally referring to candles from Bougie (now Béjaïa), a North African port city. The term transferred to medical instruments because of their similar shape.
The medical instrument 'bougie' gets its name from the Algerian city of Bougie because that port city was famous for exporting high-quality wax candles in the medieval period—doctors repurposed the word for thin tube-shaped instruments.
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