bonnie

See also Bonnie

English

Alternative forms

• bonny

Etymology

Middle English boni, probably from Old French bon, feminine bonne (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”). See bounty, and compare bonus, boon.

Adjective

bonnie (comparative more bonnie, superlative most bonnie)

1. Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe.
   • Shakespeare

     Be you blithe and bonny.

   • Sir Walter Scott

     Report speaks you a bonny monk, that would hear the matichime ere he quitted his bowl.

2. (Geordie) Beautiful; pretty; attractive.

Translations

Gay; merry; frolicsome; cheerful; blithe

• Polish: wesoły (pl) m

Beautiful; pretty; attractive

• Polish: piękny (pl) m

• Russian: красивый (ru) (krasivyj), милый (ru) (milyj)

References

• bonnie in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• be in on

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Scots

Alternative forms

• bonny

Adjective

bonnie (comparative mair bonnie, superlative maist bonnie)

1. handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful
   • Gay

     Till bonny Susan sped across the plain.

   • Robert Burns

     Far from the bonnie banks of Ayr.

References

• Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group / Word Lists / SCOTLAND C18/2 - A SELECTION FROM BURNS' VOCABULARY