April 29, 2004, 07:34
Hic et ubiqueBoss and Bossy (the cow)
We've discussed "boss sauce". Is there a relationship between 'boss' the top person in an office, and 'bossy' as the general name for a cow?
April 29, 2004, 19:46
jheemI always thought it came from the Latin
bos,
bovis 'cow'.
April 29, 2004, 20:53
jerry thomasA bit of food for thought: What's the connection between
Bosporus and
Oxford?
April 30, 2004, 00:51
aputAnd which is original, Bosporus or Bosphorus? I've never managed to work it out; both make sense, and both seem to have been used in ancient times.
April 30, 2004, 01:54
arnie Dictionary.com says that the "top person in an office" meaning comes from the Dutch word
baas 'master'.
For the "cow" meaning, they say it is "Perhaps ultimately from Latin
bos."
April 30, 2004, 07:25
jheem For the "cow" meaning, they say it is "Perhaps ultimately from Latin bos."
What? You don't speak Latin with your cattle? And, of course, German with the dogs, Italian with the mistress, and French with the fellow officers.
Rue Britannia.
May 03, 2004, 08:54
KallehHere is what
Quinion has to say on "bossy." It could be from
bovine, though also it may be from West Country dialect from the 18th century; the word
buss or
buss-calf or
bussa means an unweaned calf.
Pardon my ignorance, but where is the West Country dialect from?
quote:
where is the West Country dialect from?
Um, the west of England.
Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall.
May 04, 2004, 17:55
shufitzKalleh:
Quinion says "bossy" could be from bovine, though also it may be from West Country dialect from the 18th century; the word buss or buss-calf or bussa means an unweaned calf.Ciardi talks about these two theories. My copy is paper, not virtual, so I can't link you and will quote at length.
Boss/Bossie/boss/bossie The U.S. farmer's standard name for a dairy cow. [A mysterious form. The U.S. farmer's call
ho Boss and
hey Boss is almost pure classical Gk. for "the cow." Yet the form does not appear in general Brit. usage and the OED lists it only as SW Brit. dial. for "a half-grown cow." Perh. the Am. usage could have stemmed from that rare SW dial. Brit., but the use is so widespread and so firmly established as to invite further speculation.
In colonial time and into the early 20th century it was a professorial prerogative to graze a cow on campus. Through this same period, colleges were essentially theology schools, the curriculum based on Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. I have a curious vision of a professor emerging from his study before twilight and calling his cow whimsically in Gk.
hē bous. Back on the farm at vacation time and for summer work, students imitated the professor's form, and were in turn imitated. There is not a shred of attestation for this speculation, and I would gladly hear another. But let the root question remain visible: How did the classical form get from Greece and Rome to New England and to general Am. usage, leaving no Brit. trace except for limited usage in SW Brit. dial.?]
May 05, 2004, 11:25
Kalleh I always thought it came from the Latin bos, bovis 'cow'Boss/Bossie/boss/bossie The U.S. farmer's standard name for a dairy cow. [A mysterious form. The U.S. farmer's call ho Boss and hey Boss is almost pure classical Gk. for "the cow." When I look up
bovine, the dictionaries give a Latin origin. Where does Greek come into this?
When I look up bovine, the dictionaries give a Latin origin. Where does Greek come into this?Greek and Latin are kissing cousins in the great big PIE in the sky: the Indo-European language family. Sanskrit
gaus, Greek
bousLatin
bos (gen. [i]bovis), English
cow are all related to a PIE
root *
gwous.
The Greek is brought in for its articles: masculine
ho, feminine
hê. Latin had no articles.