bour

See also: Bour

Middle English

Alternative forms

• boure, bowre, bowur
• bur (Early Middle English)

Etymology

From Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būraz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buːr/

Noun

bour (plural boures)

1. A residence, house, or dwelling.
2. A bedroom or chamber (especially of a woman).
   • 1387–1400, [Geoffrey] Chaucer, “The Nonnes Preestes Tale of the Cok / and Hen / Chaũtecler ⁊ Ꝑtelote”, in The Tales of Caunt́bury (Hengwrt Chaucer; Peniarth Manuscript 392D), Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: National Library of Wales, published [c. 1400–1410], →OCLC, folio 99, verso:

     fful sooty was hire bour / and eek hire halle / In which she eet / ful many a sklendre meel

     Her room was really sooty, and so was her hall; / there she ate plenty of lean meals

3. (figuratively) Something's resting place.
4. (rare) A pen or stall for an animal.

Related terms

• neyghebour

Descendants

• English: bower
• Scots: bour

References

• “bǒur, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Romanian

bour

Alternative forms

• buăr, buar, boar — archaic

Etymology

Inherited from Latin būbalus, from Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos, “antelope, wild ox”). It may have passed through a Vulgar Latin intermediate form or was influenced by bubulus; cf. the form bobulum. Compare also Albanian buall. Doublet of bivol, which came through a Slavic source.

Noun

bour m (plural bouri)

1. aurochs (Bos primigenius)
2. wild bull
3. wisent (Bison bonasus)
4. the old emblem of Moldova (with the head of a wisent)

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	bour	bourul		bouri	bourii
genitive-dative	bour	bourului		bouri	bourilor
vocative	bourule			bourilor

Synonyms

• (wisent): zimbru

See also

• bou