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boon

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Pronunciation

boon1 favour, benefit

Etymology

The favour is inherited from Middle English bone (“prayer, request”),[2][3][4] borrowed from Old Norse bón (“petition, prayer”),[5][3][4][6][7] a less common form beside bœn,[4][6] from Proto-Germanic *bōniz.[3][8][4][9] Its only other Germanic reflex is Old English bēn (“prayer, petition”), the source of the archaic bene.[4][5][10] Klein relates it by ablaut to bannan (“to summon”) and banna (“to forbid”), and so to ban,[11][3][2] and the American Heritage Dictionary puts it under Proto-Indo-European *bhā-;[12] Orel compares Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, tone”).[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A prayer, especially one addressed to God: about 1175, in the Lambeth Homilies.[5] Etymonline dates the borrowing to the late 12th century,[3] and the Gersum Project finds it common and widespread throughout Middle English.[4]

Semantic evolution

The OED explains the change of meaning by phrases such as ask a boon, have one's boon and grant a boon: taken as wholes, they moved the word from the prayer to the favour asked, and then to the favour granted.[5] Etymonline describes the same passage from "favour asked" to "thing asked for" and on to "a good thing received".[3] In Middle English it was also a request made with authority, a command phrased as a request (about 1300 to 1616).[5][2] By about 1500 it meant a favour or gift granted in answer to a request,[5] and since 1767 a blessing or benefit, with no idea of asking;[5][3] Partridge thinks this sense was helped by French bon (“good”).[13] From 1656 to 1855 a boon was also unpaid work owed by a tenant to a landlord,[5] a sense that survived in the dialects of Scotland and northern England as boon or boon work.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1175 – a prayer to God; the thing prayed for; a favour asked.[5]
  • c. 1275 – a request to a person, especially for a favour.[5]
  • c. 1300 – a command phrased as a request (obsolete by 1616).[5]
  • before 1500 – a favour or gift granted on request.[5]
  • 1656 – unpaid service owed by a tenant to a landlord (obsolete by 1855).[5]
  • 1767 – a benefit or blessing.[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Something that is very useful or welcome; a blessing or benefit: The new bus route has been a boon to the village.[7][2][15]
  2. (archaic) A favour asked for, or one granted in answer to a request: He begged a boon of the queen.[7][2][5]
  3. (obsolete) A prayer or petition.[5][10]
  4. (obsolete, c. 1300–1616) A command phrased as a request.[5][2]
  5. (obsolete, 1656–1855) Unpaid work owed by a tenant to a landlord.[5][14]

Word family

  • boonless

boon2 jolly, convivial

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Middle English bon (“good”), also bone and boon,[2][8][3] borrowed from Old French bon (“good”), feminine bone,[5][8][6][11] from Latin bonus (“good”).[8][3][6][12] In Anglo-Norman the word is recorded from 1113–19.[16] Etymonline thinks it was probably encouraged by the noun boon1.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Good, goodly: about 1325, in Coer de Lyon.[5] Barnhart's first record is in Chaucer's House of Fame, probably about 1380.[17]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the adjective was used mostly in phrases taken over from French, such as bon voiage and bone chere; after 1600 it was felt as French and gradually dropped, except in boon companion.[5] That phrase, a jolly companion in drinking and merrymaking, is recorded from 1566,[5][3] and Etymonline calls it the only real survival of the word.[3] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "gay; merry", quoting Milton's "jocund and boon" from Paradise Lost.[18] From the early 17th century poets also used it for "gracious, bountiful", as in boon nature.[5][2] In African-American slang boon has meant a close friend since the 1950s, probably from boon companion.[19]

Timeline

  • c. 1325 – good, goodly (obsolete by 1680).[5]
  • before 1513 – advantageous, prosperous, as in boon voyage (obsolete by 1657).[5]
  • 1566 – convivial, jolly, chiefly in boon companion.[5][3]
  • before 1612 – poetic, gracious, bountiful.[5]
  • 1956 – slang, a close friend.[19]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Convivial and jolly, chiefly in boon companion, a close friend to drink and make merry with.[7][2][15][5]
  2. (poetic) Bounteous, kindly or benign.[2][5]
  3. (archaic) Favourable, prosperous.[20][15][5]
  4. (obsolete, c. 1325–1680) Good, goodly.[5][2]

Usage notes

A third word boon, the woody part of flax or hemp left after the fibre has been removed, is of unknown origin and is recorded from before 1425.[5][10][2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  17. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  19. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  20. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster