bidonville

[ French bee-dawn-veel ]

noun

, plural bi·don·villes [bee-daw, n, -, veel].

1. (especially in France and North Africa) an impoverished shantytown on the outskirts of a city.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bidonville¹

First recorded in 1950–55; from French, equivalent to bidon “metal drum, can (for oil, etc.)” (earlier, “five-pint wooden jug”; of uncertain origin) + -ville, combining form, in placenames, of ville “city,” from Latin vīlla villa; metal cans are often used as building materials in such towns

Example Sentences

Nearby, however, in the Ravine Pintade bidonville, or slum, Emma Labrousse is singing.

From Time

Most important, they've rented heavy machinery, and employed local workers, to extract the tons of rubble choking the bidonville's entrances and arteries.

From Time

By Tim Padgett / Port-au-Prince Backhoes and other rubble-removal equipment can't climb the steep hills and narrow streets of the bidonville, or slum, known as Carrefour-Feuilles in Port-au-Prince.

From Time

More than a month after the Jan. 12 earthquake that ravaged Haiti, and which slammed Carrefour-Feuilles especially hard, much of the bidonville's clean-up is still being done with shovels and wheelbarrows.

From Time

The venture is an economic engine for the bidonville and a sustainable one as well, since it provides an alternative to the traditional charcoal fuel that has contributed to Haiti's vast deforestation.

From Time