boorish

Etymology

It is formed from English boor + -ish.^[2][3][4][5] The noun is from Dutch boer (“farmer, peasant”), probably also partly Middle Low German būr in early use, according to the revised OED.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline begin the history of the noun with an earlier borrowing of Old French bovier (“herdsman”), later reinforced by the Dutch word.^[4][3] The OED compares Dutch boers (“of a peasant; rude, loutish”), Middle Low German būresch, Middle High German biurisch and German bäurisch (“oafish, rude, coarse”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or characteristic of a boor or peasant: 1562, in W. Turner's Herball.^[2][6][4] Etymonline gives the 1560s, and Dictionary.com 1555–65.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

A word for the manners of a peasant became a word for bad manners in general: Dictionary.com says it first described the behaviour of an unlettered rustic, and now a coarse and blatant lack of regard for other people.^[5] Barnhart dates the meaning "of a rude, ill-bred person" to 1660, in Pepys's Diary,^[4] while the OED, which keeps both ideas under one sense, runs from 1562.^[2] Shakespeare used the boorish humorously for a peasant's language in As You Like It, beside the vulgar;^[2][7] Johnson (1755) quotes the passage and glosses the adjective as clownish, rustic, untaught and uncivilized.^[7] From 1794, the boorish is also recorded for rude people as a class.^[2]

Timeline

• 1562 – of or like a boor or peasant; rude, lacking refinement.^[2][6][4]
• before 1616 – noun, the boorish, a peasant's unrefined speech (obsolete).^[2]
• 1660 – of a person, rude and ill-bred.^[4]
• 1794 – noun, the boorish, rude people as a class.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Rude, coarse and insensitive; lacking good manners or refinement: his boorish jokes at the wedding dinner.^[8][6][2][9]
2. Of, relating to or typical of a boor or peasant.^[2][6]

Noun

1. With the: boorish people as a class.^[2]

Word family

• boorishly
• boorishness

Related words

• boor
• Boer
• neighbor
• bower

Usage notes

Dictionary.com separates four near-synonyms: boorish now implies blatant insensitivity to others,^[5] oafish suggests slow, clumsy behaviour,^[5] rude is the widest, covering deliberate discourtesy and also rough, crude appearance,^[5] and uncouth stresses a lack of good manners.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt