bawbee

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English

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Etymology

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From Scots bawbee.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bawbee (plural bawbees)

  1. (Scotland, historical) A coin originally worth six pennies Scots, and later three; held equivalent to an English halfpenny.
  2. (figuratively) A copper; a small amount of money.
    • 2007 July 12, Simon Hoggart, The Guardian:
      He said there were already plans for a tramline, and a museum of the theatre. Folk should not, he implied, waste their bawbees on the devil's spinning wheel.

Scots

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Etymology

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Probably shortened from Sillebawbe, the territory of which Alexander Orrok, Scottish master of the mint in the 16th century, was laird.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bawbee (plural bawbees)

  1. (historical) bawbee, halfpenny
    • 1823, Walter Scott, St. Ronan's Well:
      ‘And muckle they hae made o't—the bankrupt body, Sandie Lawson, hasna paid them a bawbee of four terms' rent.’
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. money
  3. dowry
    • 1803, Alexander Boswell, Jenny's Bawbee:
      A' clatty, squinting through a glass, / He girn'd, ‘I'faith a bonnie lass!’ / He thought to win, wi' front o' brass, / Jenny's bawbee.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)