boor

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch boer (“peasant”). Doublet of bauer, Boer, and bower (“peasant, farmer”).

For the meaning development compare with Russian обыва́тель (obyvátelʹ, “the average man/citizen, the man in the street, philistine, resident, inhabitant”), Polish bydło (“cattle, rabble”) (whence Russian бы́дло (býdlo, “rabble, uncultured or stupid people, sheeple”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bʊə/
  • (pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /bɔː/
• (General American) enPR: bo͝or, IPA^(key): /bʊɹ/
  • (pour–poor merger) IPA^(key): /boɹ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /bʉːɹ/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /buːɹ/
• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)
• Homophones: Boer (one pronunciation); boar (pour–poor merger), bore (pour–poor merger), Bohr (pour–poor merger)

Noun

boor (plural boors)

1. A peasant.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], line 155:

     Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I’ll swear it.

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎, London: Jonathan Cape, page 30:

     For all the rich array and goodly port and countenance of Corinius, he seemed but a very boor beside the Lord Brandoch Daha, and dearly did each hate the other.

2. A Boer, white South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent.
3. A yokel, country bumpkin.
4. An uncultured person; a vulgarian.
   • 1905, Edmund Selous, The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands, p. 107 ^[1]:

     I question if any man ever saw his absent friend more clearly than did Shakespeare his Falstaff, for instance, or Scott his Balfour of Burleigh. But does it, therefore, follow that either of these great writers would, when hungry, have summoned up before him a clearer picture of his approaching dinner, than does the equally hungry or very much hungrier boor? This I doubt; and on the same principle I doubt if the said boor would see his dinner more clearly than a wolf, bear, or tiger would theirs when in quest of it.

References

Anagrams

• -boro, Boro, OBOR, boro, boro-, broo, robo, robo-

Etymology

From French port.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈboːr/ [ˈboːɾ]
• Hyphenation: boor

Noun

bóor m 

1. port, harbour

References

• Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎, Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis), page 52

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʊər/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Dutch boor, from Middle Dutch bore.

Etymology 2

From Dutch boor, from borium.

Etymology 3

From Dutch boren.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /boːr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: boor
• Rhymes: -oːr

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch bore. An early deverbal from boren (“to drill”).

Etymology 2

Dutchification of borium.

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

boor (genitive boori, partitive boori)

1. boron

Verb

boor

1. first-person singular present passive indicative of boō

Noun

boor

1. Alternative form of bor

Noun

boor (plural booth)

1. goat

References

• Dinka-English Dictionary‎, 2005

Noun

boor

1. indefinite plural of boa

Etymology

From Middle English poor, from Old French povre, from Latin pauper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /buːr/

Adjective

boor

1. poor
   • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 6, page 96:

     An a boor lithel breedegroom waithed wonderfullee griefte.

     And the poor dirty bridegroom looked wondrously grieved.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 27