boon

See also: bon, Boon, and bo-on

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buːn/
• Hyphenation: boon
• Rhymes: -uːn

Etymology 1

From Middle English boon (“prayer”), from Old Norse bón (“prayer, petition”), from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“supplication”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ni-, *bʰeh₂- (“to say”). Influenced by boon (“good, favorable”, adj). Cognate with Swedish bön (“prayer, petition, request”), Danish bøn (“prayer”), Old English bēn (“prayer, request, favor, compulsory service”). More at ben.

Noun

boon (plural boons)

1. (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 […]

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

• (a thing received) See gift and favor
• (a good thing) blessing; benefit

Antonyms

• bane

Translations

A blessing or benefit

• Bulgarian: благодат (bg) f (blagodát)
• Czech: požehnání n, dobrodiní n, laskavost (cs) f
• Dutch: zegen (nl), voordeel (nl)
• French: aubaine (fr) f
• German: Segen (de) m
• Persian: نعمت‎ (fa) (ne'mat), موهبت‎ (fa) (movhebat)

• Portuguese: bênção (pt) f
• Russian: бла́го (ru) n (blágo), благода́ть (ru) f (blagodátʹ), добро́ (ru) n (dobró)
• Spanish: bendición (es) f, ventaja (es) f
• Swedish: välsignelse (sv), förmån (sv)
• Turkish: bereket (tr), şükran (tr)

a gift; a benefaction; a grant; a present

• Bulgarian: дар (bg) m (dar), благодеяние (bg) n (blagodejánie)
• Czech: dar (cs) m, požehnání n, dobrodiní n
• Dutch: gift (nl), geschenk (nl)

• Russian: дар (ru) m (dar), благодея́ние (ru) n (blagodejánije)
• Turkish: lütuf (tr)

a prayer or petition

• Bulgarian: молба (bg) f (molbá)
• Czech: modlitba (cs) f
• Dutch: gebed (nl), verzoek (nl)

• Russian: мольба́ (ru) f (molʹbá)
• Spanish: oración (es) f

See also

• boon and bane
• boon or bane

Etymology 2

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

Adjective

boon (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) good; prosperous; as, "boon voyage"
2. kind; bountiful; benign
   • Milton

     Which […] Nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.

3. (Fossil word used only in idiom pairing it with subsequent "companion") gay; merry; jovial; convivial
   • Arbuthnot

     a boon companion, loving his bottle

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:
     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.

   • 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"

Quotations

• Which ... Nature boon Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain — John Milton
• A boon companion, loving his bottle — John Arbuthnot

Related terms

• bounty

Translations

kind; bountiful; benign

• Bulgarian: , добър (bg) (dobǎr), благотворен (bg) (blagotvoren)
• Dutch: lief (nl), goedaardig (nl),

• Russian: до́брый (ru) (dóbryj), доброжелательный (ru) (dobroželatelʹnyj)

gay; merry; jovial; convivial

• Bulgarian: весел (bg) (vesel), приятен (bg) (prijaten)
• Dutch: vrolijk (nl), minzaam (nl),

• Russian: весёлый (ru) (vesjólyj)

Etymology 3

From Scottish Gaelic and Irish via Scots.

Noun

boon (uncountable)

1. 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.
(See the entry for boon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams

• Bono, NOBO, Obon, noob

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Afrikaans

Etymology

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

Noun

boon (plural bone, diminutive boontjie)

1. bean

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Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /boːn/
• Rhymes: -oːn
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): [boːn]
• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): [boʊ̯n]
• (Netherlands)

  Audio

  (file)

Noun

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

1. bean

Hypernyms

• peulvrucht

Derived terms

• blauwe boon
• bruine boon
• cacaoboon
• kidneyboon
• koffieboon
• rumboon
• snijboon
• sperzieboon
• witte boon

Descendants

• Afrikaans: boon
• → Papiamentu: bonchi (from the diminutive)
• → Sranan Tongo: bonki

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Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old Norse bón; this is from Proto-Germanic *bōniz.

Alternative forms

• bone

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /boːn/

Noun

boon (plural boons or boonen)

1. prayer, supplication, request
2. boon, bonus

Descendants

• English: boon

Etymology 2

From Old English bān.

Noun

boon (plural boons)

1. Alternative form of bon