boon
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English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Etymology 1 [edit]
From Middle English boon (“prayer”), from Old Norse bόn (“prayer, petition”), from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“supplication”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāni-, *bʰā- (“to say”). Influenced by boon (“good, favorable”, a). Cognate with Swedish bön (“prayer, petition, request”), Danish bøn (“prayer”), Old English bēn (“prayer, request, favor, compulsory service”). More at ben.
Noun [edit]
boon (plural boons)
- (obsolete) A prayer; petition.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?):
- For which to God he made so many an idle boon […]
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?):
- (archaic) That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift; a favour; benefaction; a grant; a present.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of James I. 17 to this entry?):
- Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above […]
- 1872, James De Mille, The Cryptogram:[1]
- I gave you life. Can you not return the boon by giving me death, my lord?
- (Can we find and add a quotation of James I. 17 to this entry?):
- A good; a blessing or benefit; a great privilege; a thing to be thankful for.
- Finding the dry cave was a boon to the weary travellers.
- Anaesthetics are a great boon to modern surgery.
- (UK dialectal) An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.
Synonyms [edit]
Antonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
Etymology 2 [edit]
From Middle English boon, bone, from Old Northern French boon, Old French bon (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”), from Old Latin duonus, dvenos, from Proto-Indo-European *dū- (“to respect”).
Adjective [edit]
boon (not comparable)
- (obsolete) good; prosperous; as, "boon voyage"
- kind; bountiful; benign
- gay; merry; jovial; convivial
- a boon companion
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 16
- --No, Mr Bloom repeated again, I wouldn't personally repose much trust in that boon companion of yours who contributes the humorous element, if I were in your shoes.
Translations [edit]
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Quotations [edit]
- Which ... Nature boon Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain — John Milton
- A boon companion, loving his bottle — John Arbuthnot
Etymology 3 [edit]
From Gaelic and Irish via Scots.
Noun [edit]
boon (uncountable)
- The woody portion of flax, separated from the fiber as refuse matter by retting, braking, and scutching.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
Anagrams [edit]
Dutch [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Old Dutch *bōna, from Proto-Germanic *baunō.
Pronunciation [edit]
Noun [edit]
boon f, m (plural bonen, diminutive boontje)
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English archaic terms
- British English
- English dialectal terms
- English terms derived from Old Northern French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Old Latin
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- Webster 1913
- Dutch terms derived from Old Dutch
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Dutch nouns
- nl:Vegetables