boss English · revision 3368

+ English has two main words spelled ''boss'': the employer or master, from Dutch baas, and the raised ornament or knob, from Old French boce.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /bɒs/, US /bɑːs/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ {{homograph|1|employer}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1649|origins=nl baas}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The employer is [[bor|nl|baas|t=master]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(MW Word Histories) Middle Dutch baes, a word of obscure origin.^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) If it first meant “uncle”, it may be related to Old High German basa “aunt”, but this is doubted.^(Etymonline) German Baas and the Scandinavian bas are borrowed from Dutch.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Before 1649, spelled ''base'', in John Winthrop's ''History of New England'', and ''basse'' in 1653, in American English.^(Barnhart 1988)^(MW Word Histories) Etymonline dates it to the 1640s.^(Etymonline) The form baas was used in English from the 1620s as the title of a Dutch ship's captain.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word came in through New Amsterdam, which became New York.^(MW Word Histories) The modern spelling was current by 1806, when Washington Irving used it.^(MW Word Histories)^(Barnhart 1988) It was popular among the lower orders, and Mencken linked it to the “proletarian self-assertion” of the Jacksonian era, and British travellers and James Fenimore Cooper disliked it in the 1830s.^(MW Word Histories) Part of its success came from an American aversion to ''master'',^(MW Word Histories)^(Etymonline) and perhaps from the need to tell free labour from slave.^(Etymonline) Attributive use, as in ''boss carpenter'', came in about the 1830s.^(MW Word Histories) The verb is from 1856^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) and ''bossy'' from 1882.^(Barnhart 1988) The political boss who controls a party machine is American.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate) The slang adjective “excellent” is from the 1880s, revived in teen and jazz slang in the 1950s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1620s – baas, a Dutch captain.^(Etymonline)

+ * before 1649 – ''base'', a master.^(Barnhart 1988)^(MW Word Histories)

+ * 1806 – the spelling ''boss''.^(MW Word Histories)

+ * 1856 – verb.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1882 – ''bossy''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1880s – adjective, excellent.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An employer or [[supervisor]]; the person in charge.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # A politician who controls a party or [[political machine]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To supervise or control.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # To order about in a domineering way.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # ''(slang)'' Excellent.^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[bossy]]

+ * [[bossism]]

+ * [[boss man]]

+

+ {{homograph|2|knob, stud}}

+

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1325|origins=fro boce}}

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The knob is [[inh|enm|boce]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) [[bor|fro|boce|t=hump, swelling]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) through Anglo-French bose and Anglo-Latin boci.^(Barnhart 1988) The Old French word is perhaps from [[frk|*botja|t=a blow, swelling from a blow]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) or from [[la-vul|*bottia]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)^(Etymonline) also seen in Italian bozza and Romanian boț “lump”; its origin is uncertain.^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A swelling: before 1325, in ''Cursor Mundi''.^(Barnhart 1988) A hump on the back is from before 1300 in the OED.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A raised ornament, as in carving or on a ceiling, is from 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible,^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) and the projection in the centre of a shield from about 1386.^(OED 1989) A knoll or mass of rock is from 1598.^(OED 1989) The verb, “to stand out”, is from before 1400.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1300 – a hump.^(OED 1989)

+ * before 1325 – a swelling.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1382 – a raised ornament.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1386 – the boss of a shield.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1598 – a mass of rock.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A raised ornament or [[knob]] on a surface, as at the intersection of ribs in a [[vault]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # The rounded projection at the centre of a [[shield]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # A protruding part of a machine, as the hub of a wheel.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To decorate with raised ornaments; to [[emboss]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[emboss]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[botch]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Merriam-Webster also lists a dialect ''boss'' meaning “a young cow”.^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}