boistous

English

Alternative forms

• boystous

Etymology

From Middle English boistous, from Anglo-Norman bustous (“rough”), perhaps from Old French boitous (“noisy”) (the source of French boiteux).

Adjective

boistous (comparative more boistous, superlative most boistous)

1. (obsolete, Early Modern) Coarse, rude; noisy, violent; strong.
   • 1510, Here begynneth a lytel treatyse of ye byrth & prophecye of Marlyn‎^[1], folio 28^v:

     Pawes he had grete and longe / Fyre of out of his mouthe spronge / His tayle was grete and no thynge small / And his body boystous withall / His blaste myght no man tell

   • 1552, Thomas Churchyard, A playn and fynall confutacion: Of cammells corlyke oblatracion‎^[2], page [1]:

     The tune wherof semes yet full straunge, so boystous is the blast: / but quiet calmes settes forth still windes, when stormes be gon and past.

   • 1560, The Knight of the Swanne‎^[3], folio 33^v:

     And whan he was comen to the gate of the palais he mette firste with a boistous churle that rigorousli axed hĩ what he sought there?

   • 1567, Ovid, “The Tenth Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 126, verso:

     And therewithall shee thought / The same to bee a shape ryght meete uppon them to bee brought: / And so shee from theyr myghty limbes theyr native figure tooke, / And turnd them into boystous Bulles with grim and cruell looke.

Related terms

• boisterous
• boistously
• boistousness

Further reading

• “boistous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.