boon

• IPA^(key): /buːn/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

From Middle English boon (“prayer”), from Old Norse bón (“prayer, petition”), from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“supplication”), influenced by boon (“good, favorable”, adj). Doublet of ben; see there for more.

boon (plural boons)

1. (obsolete) A prayer; petition.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 34, page 503:

     The wofull husbandman doth lowd complaine, / To ſee his whole yeares labor loſt ſo ſoone, / For which to God he made ſo many an idle boone.

2. (archaic) That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift or benefaction.
   • 1881, The Bible (English Revised Version), James 1:17:

     Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above [...]

   • 1872, James De Mille, The Cryptogram:

     I gave you life. Can you not return the boon by giving me death, my lord?

3. A good thing; a blessing or benefit; a thing to be thankful for.
   • 2013 July–August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

     Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. [...] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

   Finding the dry cave was a boon to the weary travellers.

   Anaesthetics are a great boon to modern surgery.

4. (Britain, dialectal) An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.

• (a thing received) See gift and favor
• (a good thing) blessing; benefit

• bane

• boon and bane
• boon or bane

From Middle English boon, bone, borrowed from Old Northern French boon, from Old French bon (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”), from Old Latin duonus, dvenos, from Proto-Indo-European *dū- (“to respect”).

boon (comparative booner, superlative boonest)

1. (obsolete) Good; prosperous.

   boon voyage

2. (archaic) Kind; bountiful; benign.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Which […] Nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.

3. (now only in boon companion) gay; merry; jovial; convivial.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Greedily she ingorg’d without restraint,
     And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length,
     And hight’nd as with Wine, jocond and boon,
     Thus to her self she pleasingly began.

   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, chapter 16, in The History of John Bull:

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 50, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:

     I’m a lonely old man; I lead a life that I don’t like, among boon companions, who make me melancholy.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], OCLC 560090630, part I [Telemachia], page 16:

     ―No, Mr Bloom repeated again, I wouldn't personally repose much trust in that boon companion of yours who contributes the humorous element, if I were in your shoes.

   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press:

     […] the boon twins Art and Con aged thirty-seven years […]

   • 1985, Herbert Kretzmer (English lyrics), Les Misérables (musical), "Master of the House," second and third refrains, fifth line:

     (2) "Everybody's boon companion, / Everybody's chaperon"; (3) "Everybody's boon companion: / Give[s] 'em everything he's got"

• ace boon coon

• bounty

From Middle English bone (North), akin to or alteration of Old English bune (“reed”).[1]

boon (uncountable)

1. The woody portion of flax, separated from the fiber as refuse matter by retting, braking, and scutching.

boon (plural boons)

1. (slang) Clipping of sheboon.

• shive, shove

• Bono, NOBO, Obon, noob

From Dutch boon, from Middle Dutch bône, from Old Dutch *bōna, from Proto-Germanic *baunō.

• IPA^(key): /bʊə̯n/

• Audio

  (file)

boon (plural bone, diminutive boontjie)

1. bean

• → Xhosa: imbotyi (from the diminutive)

From Middle Dutch bône, from Old Dutch *bōna, from Proto-Germanic *baunō.

• IPA^(key): /boːn/
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): [boːn]
• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): [boʊ̯n]
• (Netherlands)

  Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: boon
• Rhymes: -oːn

boon f or m (plural bonen, diminutive boontje n)

1. bean

• peulvrucht

• blauwe boon
• bonenkruid
• bruine boon
• cacaoboon
• kidneyboon
• koffieboon
• rumboon
• snijboon
• sojaboon
• sperzieboon
• tuinboon
• witte boon

• Afrikaans: boon
  • → Xhosa: imbotyi (from the diminutive)
• Berbice Creole Dutch: bono
• Negerhollands: bontśi, boontje, boonschi (from the diminutive)
  • → Virgin Islands Creole: bontsi (archaic)
• → Caribbean Javanese: bontyis (from the diminutive plural)
• → Indonesian: buncis (from the diminutive plural)
  • → Petjo: bontjies, boontjies
• → Javanese: buncis (from the diminutive plural)
• → Papiamentu: bonchi, boontsje (from the diminutive)
• → Sranan Tongo: bonki (from the diminutive)
  • → Caribbean Hindustani: bongki

Borrowed from Old Norse bón, from Proto-Germanic *bōniz.

• bone

• IPA^(key): /boːn/
• Rhymes: -oːn

boon (plural boons or boonen)

1. prayer, supplication, request
2. boon, bonus

• English: boon
• Scots: boon

Borrowed from Old Northern French boon, from Old French bon (“good”).

• bone

• IPA^(key): /boːn/
• Rhymes: -oːn

boon

1. good

• English: boon

boon (plural boons)

1. Alternative form of bon