| 释义 |
▪ I. boon, n.1|buːn|
Forms: 2–7 bone, 3–4 bon, (2, 5 bune, 3 bun, 3, 6 boun, 4 boyn, 5 boyne), 4–8 boone, (6 bowne, bound), 5– boon.
[a. ON. bón, the etymological correspondent of OE. bén, ME. bene, prayer. Through such phrases as ‘ask a boon’, ‘have one's boon’, ‘grant a boon’, taken without analysis, the sense easily passed, by insensible transitions, from ‘prayer’, to ‘favour asked’, ‘favour conferred’, ‘free gift,’ ‘good thing received’. The adj. boon ‘good’ probably aided in this development.]
†1. A prayer, petition, entreaty, request. Obs.
a. A prayer to God, Christ, etc.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 63 Ah lauerd god, her ure bone. a1225Ancr. R. 28 Þe seoue bonen iþe Paternoster. a1300Cursor M. 3690 Godd..has herd mi bon. Ibid. 25306 Hu wath it es to bid þis bun. c1380Sir Ferumb. 3948 To ihesu þanne he bad a bone. c1460Towneley Myst. 12 Lord of heven, thou here my boyne [rime done]. 1513Douglas æneis x. v. 90 Ene..can pray and maid hys bone.
b. A request addressed to a human being; esp. the asking of a favour.
c1205Lay. 14912 Þe king uor his fader bone Ȝette hire hir bone [? bene]. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1592 The kyng assentede to his bone [v.r. boone]. c1440Gesta Rom. (1879) 153 He grauntid, that the trespassour shulde aske iij. bonys or he deyde. 1530Palsgr. 199/2 Bone, a request, requeste. a1581Campion Hist. Irel. ii. vii. (1633) 94 Her husband assented, and accomplished her boone effectually. 1623Cockeram, Boone, a request.
†2. A request made with authority; a command or order couched in the form of a request. Obs.
c1300St. Brandan 631 Ich aros to don his holi bone. c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 826 Agayne þe bone of þe burne þat hit forboden hade. a1400Cov. Myst. (1841) 28 Why hast thou synnyd so sone, Thus hastyly to brake my bone. c1400Destr. Troy 505 Sho obeit his bone. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 46 Wid. What you command, that rests in me to doe. King. But you will take exceptions to my Boone.
3. transf. The matter prayed for or asked; esp. in to have one's boon, to grant one his boon. (Cf. use of prayer, request.) Obs. or arch.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 37 Ȝif þu wult habben bone to drihten. a1300Cursor M. 8414 He yatte hir freli al hir bone. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 2337 God..sende the thyn bone. c1386― Knt.'s T. 1811 Mars hat his wille, his knyght hath al his boone. c1440Promp. Parv. 43 Bone, or graunte of prayer. 1488Caxton Chast. Goddes Chyld. 95 Thou shalt haue thy askynge and thy boone. 1513More Rich. III, Wks. 59/1 God loued her better, then to graunt her her bone. 1645Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1738 I. 245 If the Law come down..to grant lust his boon. 1823Scott Peveril I. vi. 106 Cousin, you must grant me my boon.
b. A thing asked as a favour; a favour (asked for). arch.
c1200Ormin 7606 Drihhtin haffde ȝatedd himm þatt bone Þatt he ȝeorrnde. c1305Pilate 229 in E.E.P. (1862) 117 Grante me ane bone, Ȝif me an appel to ete. c1400Ywaine & Gaw. 2790 The yonger mayden than alsone Of the King askes this bone. c1440York Myst. xviii. 36 Þis bone of þe I crave. 1483Caxton G. de la Tour C ij, I pray yow alle..to graunte me a bone and a yefte. 1575Appius & Virg. in Hazl. Dodsl. IV. 143 Then tender your child that craveth this bound. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 289 Vpon my feeble knee, I beg this boone, with teares, not lightly shed. c1650Rob. Hood & Fryer 116 A boone, a boone, said the curtall fryer..Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth. 1862Trench Mirac. xxiii. 343 She has a boon to ask for her daughter.
†c. to pray (one) of a boon. Obs.
1393Gower Conf. I. 207 He..praid him of a bone, To se this Custe. c1440Gesta Rom. (1879) 411, I pray the,..of a bone, that thou wilte herborow me this nyght. 1481Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 34, I pray you of a bone, that I may to fore you alle make my confession.
4. A favour, a gift, a thing freely or graciously bestowed:
a. in response to asking. arch.
c1460Towneley Myst. 282 Send us, lord, this blissid bone. c1520Adam Bel 509 in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 160 Madame, ye myght have asked a bowne, That shuld have ben worth them all three. 1630Prynne God No Impostor 30 We deserue no boone, no fauor at his hands. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull (1727) 71 What art thou asking of them, after all? Some mighty boon? 1839Thirlwall Greece VI. 319 A boon like that which Aristotle had obtained from Philip.
b. without the notion of asking. In 17th c. applied to a largess, gratuity or present; but now only fig. and arch.
1662Fuller Worthies (1840) II. 508 The Queen..seldom gave boons, and never forgave due debts. 1677Marvell Season. Argument Wks. 1776 II. 558 He..has got by boones, at several times..3000l. Ibid. 579 A boon given him in the excise which he sold for 13500l. 1679Pepys Diary VI. 130, I have never..done it to the obtaining sixpence from the Crown by any boon extraordinary. 1738Glover Leonidas i. 144 The choicest boons of fate. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. viii. 161 The Earl..had accepted with difficulty, the boon of his freedom. 1845–6Trench Huls. Lect. Ser. ii. viii. 269 The gods had no better boon for him than an early death.
†c. Grace, favour. rare.
1820Keats St. Agnes xxiv, Down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon. 1821― Isabel xix, Of thee we now should ask forgiving boon.
5. A gift considered with reference to its value to the receiver; a benefit enjoyed, blessing, advantage, a thing to be thankful for: sometimes without even the notion of giving, but always with that of something that one has no claim to, or that might have been absent. (The usual current sense.)
1767T. Hutchinson Hist. Prov. Mass. Bay i, The charter of Massachusets was not so great a boon. 1820Keats St. Agnes xxxix, An elfin storm from faery land, Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed. 1855Maury Phys. Geog. Sea iii. (1860) §185 The presence of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream..is a great boon to navigation. 1856Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. App. 270 The inestimable boon of articulate language. 1876Green Short Hist. iii. §3 (1882) 124 The boon of free and unbought justice was a boon for all.
6. An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord. Cf. ‘benevolence’. Obs. exc. dial.
1634Sanderson Serm. II. 294 Racking their rents, taking in their commons, overthrowing their tenures, diminishing their wages, encreasing their boons. 1703Bp. T. Wilson in Keble Life v. (1863) 194 To leave all such carriages, Boones and services on the same foot as already provided for by Law. 1855Whitby Gloss., Boon, a stated service rendered to the landlord by the tenant.
b. Hence boon-day, boon-loaf (a loaf allowed to a tenant when working on a boon-day), boon-man, boon-work; also
c. boon-ploughing, -shearing, a day's ploughing or shearing given gratuitously to a farmer by his neighbours on a special occasion.
1679Blount Anc. Tenures 153 The custom was here for the Natives and Cottagers to plow and harrow for the Lord, and to work one *boon-day for him every week in Harvest. 1788Marshall Rur. Econ. Yorksh. (1796) I. 41 Tenant agrees..to perform the customary leadings, or boondays. 1863Atkinson Provinc. Danby, &c. s.v. Boon-days.
1679Blount Anc. Tenures 143 Every plow was to be allowed four *boon-loaves.
1727Bp. T. Wilson in Keble Life xx. (1863) 680 The *boon-men i.e. they who owe him rent in the way of work.
1886Carlisle Jrnl. 23 Feb. 2/4 *Boon Ploughing at Burgh.
1875Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) *Boon-shearin (N. Lanc.), a quantity of shearing given as in the case of a boon-ploo [= boon-ploughing].
1883Seebohm Eng. Vill. Community 78, Precariæ or *boon-work, i.e. special work at request.
¶ Occasionally boon appears to have the sense of ‘good’, but in the earlier instances at least the sense of ‘favour asked’ or ‘conferred’, is more or less apparent. Modern archaists complete the confusion with boon a.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 1089 Hade bodyly burne abiden þat bone..His lyf wer loste. c1650Came you not, &c. 12 in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 254, I haue Land att durham will feitch my hart to boone. 1874Holland Mistr. Manse xxi. 83 The steps were scaled for boon or bale. 1884Skrine Und. Two Queens ii. 34 Boon we mingle and bane.
▪ II. boon, n.2
Forms: 4 bon(e, 5–6 bunne, 9 boon: see also bun.
[Of unknown etymology: see bun.]
The stalk of flax or hemp after the fibre has been removed; the stalks of cow-parsnip and other umbelliferous plants.
1388Wyclif Isa. i. 31 Ȝoure strengthe schal be as a deed sparcle of bonys [v.r. stobil], ether of herdis of flex. c1440Promp. Parv. 277 Kyx, or bunne, or drye weed. 1615Markham Eng. Housew. (1649) 182 All the loose buns and shivers that hang in the hemp or flaxe. 1838Penny Cycl. X. 305 The flax plants are passed between these cylinders..and the stalk, or boon, as it is technically called, is by this means completely broken without injuring the fibres.
▪ III. boon, a. (and adv.)|buːn|
Forms: 4–9 bon, 4–7 bone, 4–5 bonne, (6 boun), 6–7 boone, (7 boune), 4– boon.
[a. OF. bon, bone good: used esp. in what were orig. French phrases (e.g. bone chere, bon sire, bone order, bon voiage, bone fortune, etc.), but to some extent in general Eng. use from 14th to 17th c.; after 1600 it seems to have been consciously recognized as French, and gradually dropped, exc. in senses 3 and 4. In sense 3 it was probably associated with the Eng. n. boon1, in its later sense of ‘favour, benefaction, good gift’.]
A. adj.
†1. Good, goodly. Obs. (in 17th c.)
c1325E.E. Allit. P. A. 28 He schal loke on oure lorde with a bone chere. c1325Coer de L. 1540 They come to cyte boon. c1384Chaucer H. Fame 1022 Seint Iulian! lo, bon hostelle! c1425Seven Sages (P.) 1013 Maugré have thow, bone sire. c1435Torr. Portugal 2143 Of speche he is fulle bone. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxcix. 692 Euery man drewe in bone order into the feldes. 1537Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Convoc., Let vs all make bon chere [ed. 1635 good cheer]. 1617J. Taylor (Water P.) Trav. Wks. (1630) iii. 78/1 Four pots of boone beere as yellow as gold. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 302 Nicolaus Damascenus; a great Orator and boon pleader. 1686W. de Britaine Hum. Prudence xviii. (ed. 3) 83, I am of that boon Courage.
†2. Advantageous, fortunate, favourable, prosperous: esp. in the once universal phrase boon voyage prosperous journey, also fig. good success. Hence, to drink upon or in boon voyage. Obs.
1494Fabyan vi. ccx. 225 One broughte forthe a bolle full of mede..to drynke vpon bon vyage. 1563–87Foxe A. & M. I. 384/2 Drinking one to another in boun voyage of the spoil of them whom they would take as their prisoners. 1590Greene Never too Late Wks. 1882 VIII. 20, I may wish boone fortune to thy iourney. 1631Heywood Maid of West iv. Wks. 1874 II. 311 Quaffe unto the health of our boone voyage. c1645Howell Lett. i. i. iv. (1726) 21. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying Ins. 329 These cunning Philosophers..can..with Judas embrace a man with a courtly boone-congee, and at parting cut a mans throat. [1680–: cf. bon voyage s.v. bon a. k] .
3. Gracious, bounteous, benign; = L. almus, alma. poetic.
a1612Harington Epigr. ii. (1633) 50 Our boon God did benignly heare. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 242 Flours..which..Nature boon Powrd forth profuse. c1800K. White Poems (1837) 146 But may all nature smile with aspect boon. 1814Cary Dante (Chandos) 301 Its boon influence. 1841Emerson Method Nat. Wks. 1875 II. 224 This wasteful hospitality with which boon nature turns off new firmaments. 1869M. Arnold Switzerl. iii. Farewell xxi, How sweet to feel, on the boon air, All our unquiet pulses cease!
4. In boon companion, lit. ‘good-fellow’, used in a jovial bacchanalian sense, transferred to other phrases, and occas. predicatively: Jolly, convivial.
1566Drant Med. Morall A v, He is my bone companion, its he that cheares up me. 1604Meet. of Gallants at Ord. 21 A boone companion lighted amongst good fellowes, as they call good fellowes now a dayes, which are those that can drink best. 1622Dekker & Massinger Virg. Martyr ii. i, Bacchus..this boon Bacchannalian skinker. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 793 Hight'nd as with Wine, jocond and boon. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 6 A boon companion, loving his bottle and his diversion. 1827Lytton Pelham xiv, He was also the boonest of companions. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxi. (1856) 268 The effort of each man to..be very boon and jolly. 1884Tennyson Becket 61 My comrade, boon companion, my co-reveller.
b. Hence boon companionship; boonfellow (treated as a single word).
1844Disraeli Coningsby i. v. 23 All the resources of boon companionship. 1876G. Meredith Beauch. Career II. ix. 171 A good friend and not a bad boonfellow.
†B. adv. Well, gently, favourably.
Old Song, ‘Oh! firm as Oak’, While boon the wind blows, And smooth the tide flows.
▪ IV. boon, v. Obs. or dial.
Also 7 beun.
[f. boon n.1]
†1. To pray for, ask as a boon. Obs.
c1200Ormin 694 Þatt Zacariass Godess preost..O Drihhten haffde bonedd. Ibid. 5223 Lef faderr, icc þe bone, Ȝiff me nu þatt twifalde gast.
2. trans. to boon away: to give away in boons.
c1661in Harl. Misc. (1746) VIII. 27/1 What was got by Oppression, will be booned away by the King's Liberality.
†3. intr. To do boon-work: see boon n.1 6.
1691Ray N.C. Wds. 9 To Boon or Beun, to do Service to another as a Landlord.
†4. trans. To repair (public roads). dial. Perhaps as one of the chief forms of boon-work: but there may be influence of boon n.1 or a. in other senses.
1783Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (Morell) 1 To boon [repair the roads], vias hyeme corruptas æstate reparare. 1877E. Peacock N.W. Linc. Gloss., Boon, to repair a highway, ‘I'd hev' all cheches pull'd doon to boon th' roads wi'.’
▪ V. boon(e, boond(e
dial. or obs. ff. of bound. |
