bosser

See also: bòsser

English

Etymology

From boss +‎ -er?

Noun

bosser (plural bossers)

1. (rare) A bossy person, one who orders others around.
   • 1985, Gertrude Story, The Need of Wanting Always, page 160:

     They were all bossers here. Especially the women. They were bossy even when they deared her.

2. (UK, dialect) A large marble in children's games.
   • 1953, Arthur Beckett, The Sussex County Magazine, volume 27, page 60:

     […] the ultimate winner is the man with the greatest number of marbles when play comes to an end. The games at Battle at the present time are played with glass marbles and locally made “bossers” of concrete.

   • 1997, Iona Archibald Opie, Peter Opie, Children's games with things, page 54:

     Modern children, having only machine-made glass marbles, are restricted to names describing their size, or the names under which they are sold, or fanciful names of their own inventing. Thus big marbles are big 'uns, bossers, bulls or bullies […]

3. An instrument used to push clay into a mold.

Anagrams

• Bosers, Sobers, broses, sobers

Bavarian

Noun

bosser ?

1. (Sauris) water

References

• Umberto Patuzzi, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar, Luserna: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔ.se/

Etymology 1

First attested in 1878.

Probably from bosse +‎ -er (see below) with some sort of semantic shift. It has been suggested that in western France, the verb came to mean "to bend over for work"; alternately, that sailors raising an anchor was considered typical "hard work", or that the word came from the sense of "to emboss" and was originally cant used by artisans.

Verb

bosser

1. (Europe, informal) to work, labour, do a day's work

   Synonym: travailler

   • 2023 August 6, “Qui sont ces 627.000 étudiants-travailleurs, et pourquoi sacrifient-ils leur été?”, in Le Soir:

     Il n’y a jamais eu autant de jobistes en Belgique. La conséquence d’un assouplissement de la législation ces dix dernières années face à la pénurie dans certains secteurs. Mais qui sont ces étudiants-travailleurs et pourquoi sacrifient-ils leur été, et de plus en plus l’année entière, à bosser ?

     There have never been so many working students in Belgium. The consequence of a relaxation of legislation over the last ten years in the face of shortages in certain sectors. But who are these student workers and why do they sacrifice their summer, and increasingly the entire year, to work?

   • Toute la journée il bosse, et pour que dalle.

     He works all day long, and all that for nothing.

2. (Europe, informal) to train (for something), work on (something), study, improve (on something)

   Synonyms: potasser, réviser, s’entraîner, bûcher

   • Je dois encore bosser (sur) mon solfège ce weekend.

     I still need to work on music theory this weekend.

   • Va bosser tes maths au lieu de jouer aux jeux vidéos!

     Get back to your maths and study instead of playing video-games!

Etymology 2

From bosse +‎ -er; cf. bossoir.

Verb

bosser (transitive)

1. to emboss
2. to dent; to cause a dent
3. (nautical) to raise an anchor over the davit(s)

Conjugation

Conjugation of bosser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bosser
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bossant /bɔ.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bossé /bɔ.se/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bosse /bɔs/	bosses /bɔs/	bosse /bɔs/	bossons /bɔ.sɔ̃/	bossez /bɔ.se/	bossent /bɔs/
	imperfect	bossais /bɔ.sɛ/	bossais /bɔ.sɛ/	bossait /bɔ.sɛ/	bossions /bɔ.sjɔ̃/	bossiez /bɔ.sje/	bossaient /bɔ.sɛ/
	past historic2	bossai /bɔ.se/	bossas /bɔ.sa/	bossa /bɔ.sa/	bossâmes /bɔ.sam/	bossâtes /bɔ.sat/	bossèrent /bɔ.sɛʁ/
	future	bosserai /bɔ.sʁe/	bosseras /bɔ.sʁa/	bossera /bɔ.sʁa/	bosserons /bɔ.sʁɔ̃/	bosserez /bɔ.sʁe/	bosseront /bɔ.sʁɔ̃/
	conditional	bosserais /bɔ.sʁɛ/	bosserais /bɔ.sʁɛ/	bosserait /bɔ.sʁɛ/	bosserions /bɔ.sə.ʁjɔ̃/	bosseriez /bɔ.sə.ʁje/	bosseraient /bɔ.sʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	bosse /bɔs/	bosses /bɔs/	bosse /bɔs/	bossions /bɔ.sjɔ̃/	bossiez /bɔ.sje/	bossent /bɔs/
	imperfect2	bossasse /bɔ.sas/	bossasses /bɔ.sas/	bossât /bɔ.sa/	bossassions /bɔ.sa.sjɔ̃/	bossassiez /bɔ.sa.sje/	bossassent /bɔ.sas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bosse /bɔs/	—	bossons /bɔ.sɔ̃/	bossez /bɔ.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “bosser”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
• “bosser” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.

Anagrams

• brosse, brossé