boon

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See also: bon and Boon

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /buːn/
  • Audio (RP)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːn

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English boon (“prayer”), from Old Norse bón (“prayer, petition”), from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“supplication”), influenced by boon (“good, favorable”, adj). Doublet of ben; see there for more.

Noun[edit]

boon (plural boons)

  1. (obsolete) A prayer; petition.
  2. (archaic) That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift or benefaction.
    • 1881, The Bible (English Revised Version), James 1:17:
      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?
  3. A good thing; a blessing or benefit; a thing to be thankful for.
    • 2013 July–August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:
      Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. [...] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.
    Finding the dry cave was a boon to the weary travellers.
    Anaesthetics are a great boon to modern surgery.
  4. (Britain, dialectal) An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English boon, bone, borrowed from Old Northern French boon, from Old French bon (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”), from Old Latin duonus, dvenos, from Proto-Indo-European *dū- (“to respect”).

Adjective[edit]

boon (comparative booner, superlative boonest)

  1. (obsolete) Good; prosperous.
    boon voyage
  2. (archaic) Kind; bountiful; benign.
  3. (now only in boon companion) gay; merry; jovial; convivial.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:
      Greedily she ingorg’d without restraint,
      And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length,
      And hight’nd as with Wine, jocond and boon,
      Thus to her self she pleasingly began.
    • 1712, John Arbuthnot, chapter 16, in The History of John Bull:
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 50, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:
      I’m a lonely old man; I lead a life that I don’t like, among boon companions, who make me melancholy.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[16]”, in Ulysses, London: The Egoist Press, published October 1922, OCLC 2297483:
      ―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.
    • 1935, Samuel Beckett, Watt:
      […] the boon twins Art and Con aged thirty-seven years […]
    • 1985, Herbert Kretzmer (English lyrics), Les Misérables (musical), "Master of the House," second and third refrains, fifth line:
      (2) "Everybody's boon companion, / Everybody's chaperon"; (3) "Everybody's boon companion: / Give[s] 'em everything he's got"
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English bone (North), akin to or alteration of Old English bune (“reed”).[1]

Noun[edit]

boon (uncountable)

  1. The woody portion of flax, separated from the fiber as refuse matter by retting, braking, and scutching.

Etymology 4[edit]

Noun[edit]

boon (plural boons)

  1. (slang) Clipping of sheboon.
Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, s.v. ‘boon3’ (NY: Random House, 2001).

Anagrams[edit]

Afrikaans[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Dutch boon, from Middle Dutch bône, from Old Dutch *bōna, from Proto-Germanic *baunō.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

boon (plural bone, diminutive boontjie)

  1. bean

Descendants[edit]

  • → Xhosa: imbotyi (from the diminutive)

Dutch[edit]

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Dutch bône, from Old Dutch *bōna, from Proto-Germanic *baunō.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

boon f or m (plural bonen, diminutive boontje n)

  1. bean

Hypernyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from Old Norse bón, from Proto-Germanic *bōniz.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

boon (plural boons or boonen)

  1. prayer, supplication, request
  2. boon, bonus
Descendants[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from Old Northern French boon, from Old French bon (“good”).

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

boon

  1. good
Descendants[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Noun[edit]

boon (plural boons)

  1. Alternative form of bon
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