bosk
English
Etymology
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From Middle English bosk, busk, variants of bush (“grove, wood; thicket, underbrush; bush; branch of a shrub or tree”), from Old English busc (attested only in place names), likely from Anglo-Latin bosca (“firewood”), from Late Latin busca, buscus, boscus (“wood; woodland”),[1] from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, thicket”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become, grow, appear”). The English word is cognate with Dalmatian buasc (“forest; wood”), French bois (“wood (material); wood, woodland”), Italian bosco (“wood (wooded area)”), Middle Dutch bosch, busch (modern Dutch bos (“forest; wood”)), Occitan boscs, Old High German busk (“bush”) (Middle High German busch, bosch, modern German Busch (“bush, shrub; brush, scrub”)), Portuguese bosque (“grove”), Spanish bosque (“forest”).
Alternatively, the modern word may be a back-formation from bosky (“having abundant bushes, shrubs, or trees”).[2]
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bɒsk/
- (General American) IPA(key): /bɑsk/
Noun
bosk (plural bosks)
- (obsolete except dialectal) A bush.
- (archaic) A thicket; a small wood.
- 1815, Walter Scott, “Canto Fifth”, in The Lord of the Isles, a Poem, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], OCLC 25523028, stanza XVI, page 196:
- Meantime, through well-known bosk and dell, / I'll lead where we may shelter well.
- 1847, Alfred Tennyson, The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 2024748, part I, page 17:
- […] and so by town and thorpe, / And tilth, and blowing bosks of wilderness, / We gain'd the mother-city thick with towers, / And in the imperial palace found the king.
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Alternative forms
- bosque (rare)
Translations
See also
References
- “bush, n.(1)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 16 March 2019.
- “bosk, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1887; “bosk” (US) / “bosk” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.
West Frisian
Etymology
From Old Frisian bosk, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz.
Derived terms
Further reading
- “bosk”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
Further reading
- “bosk”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011