bonny

See also: bonnie

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒni

Etymology 1

From Middle English *boni (attested only rarely as bon, boun), probably from Old French bon, feminine bonne (“good”), from Latin bonus (“good”). See bounty, and compare bonus, boon.

Adjective

bonny (comparative more bonny, superlative most bonny)

1. (Tyneside) Alternative spelling of bonnie
   • 1820, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

     Report speaks you a bonny monk, that would hear the matin chime ere he quitted his bowl.

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, chapter VII:

     ‘A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad,’

References

• The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, →ISBN
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[1]
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• bonny in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Etymology 2

Noun

bonny (plural bonnies)

1. (mining) A round and compact bed of ore, or a distinct bed, not communicating with a vein.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for bonny in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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Scots

Adjective

bonny (comparative mair bonny, superlative maist bonny)

1. Alternative spelling of bonnie