bonny
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- Rhymes: -ɒni
Etymology 1 edit
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 edit
bonny (comparative bonnier or more bonny, superlative bonniest or most bonny)
- (Geordie) Alternative spelling of bonnie (“attractive”).
- 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
- Report speaks you a bonny monk, that would hear the matin chime ere he quitted his bowl.
- 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter VII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:
- ‘A good heart will help you to a bonny face, my lad,’
References edit
- Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Etymology 2 edit
Noun edit
bonny (plural bonnies)
- (Northern Ireland, informal) Alternative spelling of bonnie (“bonfire”).
Etymology 3 edit
Noun edit
bonny (plural bonnies)
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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Scots edit
Adjective edit
bonny (comparative mair bonny, superlative maist bonny)
- Alternative spelling of bonnie
Yola edit
Noun edit
bonny
- Alternative form of boney
References edit
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 27