bou

From Dutch bouwen, from Middle Dutch bouwen, from Old Dutch buwan, from Proto-Germanic *būaną.

• IPA^(key): /bœu̯/

• Audio:

  (file)

bou (present bou, present participle bouende, past participle gebou)

1. to build

• bouer
• gebou

bou (uncountable)

1. building, construction (activity of building)
2. structure

bou

1. to fear

• Ross, M. & Næss, Å. (2007) “An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 46, number 2. Cited in: "Äiwoo" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

From Latin bōvem, accusative singular of bōs, possibly through a Vulgar Latin root *bovum. Compare Daco-Romanian bou.

bou m (plural boi, definite singular boulu)

1. ox

• buin
• buits / buici
• buyear

• tavru
• vacã

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈbɔw]

• Audio (Valencia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔw

Inherited from Latin bovem.

bou m (plural bous)

1. ox
2. bullock, steer
3. the edible crab (Cancer pagurus)

   Synonym: bou de mar

From Ancient Greek βόλος (bólos).

bou m (uncountable)

1. seine fishing

• bover

• → Galician: bou

• “bou”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “bou” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Hokkien 武夷 (Bú-î). Compare English bohea.

• IPA^(key): /bu/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: boue

bou m (plural bous)

1. bohea (type of Chinese tea from Fujian)

• Douglas, Carstairs (1873) “bú-î”, in Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, With the Principal Variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects. (overall work in Hokkien and English), London: Trübner & Co., page 162; New Edition, With Corrections by the Author., Thomas Barclay, Lîm Iàn-sîn 林燕臣, London: Publishing Office of the Presbyterian Church of England, 1899, page 162

From Catalan bou, idem.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbow/

bou m (plural bous)

1. (fishing) pair trawling
2. (fishing) trawler used for pair trawling

   Se vou a Bueu nun bou, vou. Se non vou nun bou, non vou. [sɪˈβowɐβuˈewnumˈbowˈβow sɪnʊmˈbownum'bownʊm'bow]

   [A Galician tongue-twister]: If I'll go to Bueu in a bou, I'll go; but if I won't go in a bou, I won't go.

• Pair trawling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• bou (pesca) on the Catalan Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ca

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “bou”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “bou”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “bou”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

bou

1. Rōmaji transcription of ぼう

• boub
• bouk

• (phonetic) IPA^(key): [pˠou]
• (phonemic) IPA^(key): /pˠewiw/
• Bender phonemes: {bȩwiw}

bou

1. a dragonfly

• Marshallese–English Online Dictionary

From Latin bovem.^[1]

bou m

1. ox

• Atasanov, Petar (1990) Le mégléno-roumain de nos jours: Une approche linguistique, Hamburg: Buske

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈbɔʊ̯/

bou m or n

1. alternative form of bū

• "bou" in Köbler, Gerhard, Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (3rd edition 2014)

From Middle High German wō, wā, wār, from Old High German hwār, from Proto-West Germanic *hwār, from Proto-Germanic *hwar (“where”). Cognate with German wo, English where.

bou

1. where

• “bou” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.

• bueu

From Latin bōvem, accusative singular of bōs.

• IPA^(key): /bɔw/

bou m (oblique plural bous, nominative singular bous, nominative plural bou)

1. ox

• Auvergnat: beu, bueu
• Gascon: buèu, bueu, beu, bieu, büu
• Languedocien: buòu, biòu
• Provençal: buou, bou
• Vivaro-Alpine: buou

• боу (bou) — post-1930s (Moldovan Cyrillic spelling

Inherited from Latin bōvem, accusative singular of bōs, possibly through a Vulgar Latin root *bovum. Compare Aromanian bou.

• IPA^(key): /bow/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ow

bou m (plural boi)

1. ox
2. (colloquial) idiot

   Synonyms: idiot, tâmpit, prost

• bouț
• boulean
• boușor

• boar
• bovin

• vacă
• taur
• vițel

• IPA^(key): [buː]
• (Southern Scots) IPA^(key): [bʌu]
• (North Northern Scots) IPA^(key): [puː]

From Old Norse bú (“farming, a farm, farm stock”).

bou (plural bous)

1. (agriculture) stock or herd of cattle; farmhouse, village

From Old Norse bógr.

bou (plural bous)

1. (nautical) bow

From Middle English bowe, from Old English boga, from Proto-West Germanic *bogō.

bou (third-person singular simple present bous, present participle bouin, simple past boued, past participle boued)

1. to bow, bend

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

bou (plural bous)

1. louse

• bo

bou (plural bous)

1. alternative form of bo

Borrowed from Catalan bou. Doublet of buey and bife.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbou/ [ˈbou̯]

• Audio (Costa Rica):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ou
• Syllabification: bou

bou m (uncountable)

1. seine fishing

bou m (plural boues)

1. boat for seine fishing, seiner

• “bou”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Likely to ultimately be from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian [Term?], from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bahu, *bahuq; compare Proto-Oceanic *bou (“smell, odor”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbo.u/

bou

1. an odor, an unpleasant smell

bou

1. (stative) to smell bad, to stink

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh