bowerland

See also: Bowerland

English

Etymology

From Middle English bureland, borlond, burlond, from Old English būrland, ġebūrland (“land occupied by farmers; farmland”), equivalent to bower (“peasant; farmer”) +‎ land.

Noun

bowerland (plural not attested)

1. (rare, archaic) A rural area; farmland; bowery
   • 1896, Hubert Howe Bancroft, The Book of Wealth:

     When Peter Stuyvesant became director-general of New Netherlands in 1647 by appointment of the Dutch West India Company, he resided on his farm, or bowery, which name the place retains to this day, though the scent of roses has long since left it. Later this same bowerland was the center of fashion, the Bowery Street a popular driveway, wealth and gaiety crowding its borders while yet the Broadway was a country road winding among humble farms and odorous stockyards.

   • 1905, The Studio, volume 36, numbers 151-154, page 120:

     The Grey Bower has woodwork of white, with grey walls decorated with a bowerland of rose and fuchsia, and having an undergrowth of blue-bells.

   • 1909, One Hundred Choice Selections, volume 6, numbers 21-24, page 194:

     Babyland never again will be thine,
     Land of all mystery, holy, divine,
     Motherland, otherland,
     Wonderland, underland,
     Land of a time ne'er again to be seen;
     Flowerland, bowerland,
     Airyland, fairyland,
     Rockaby, baby, thy cradle is green.

Anagrams

• drownable