bowssen

English edit

Etymology edit

Ultimately borrowed from Cornish beudhi or Breton beuziñ (“to drown”).^[1]

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊsən/

Verb edit

bowssen (third-person singular simple present bowssens, present participle bowssening, simple past and past participle bowssened)

(obsolete) To drench; to soak; to immerse (in water believed to have curative properties).
- 1609, Richard Carew, “The Second Booke”, in The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, →OCLC, folio 123, recto:
  There were many bowssening places, for curing of mad men.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “bowssen”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

References edit

^ William Borlase (1758) The natural history of Cornwall‎^[1], page 302: “the Cornish call this immersion Boussening, from Beuzi or Bidhyzi, in the Cornu-british and Armoric, signifying to dip, or drown.”

Anagrams edit

Bowness, besnows

[1] William Borlase (1758) The natural history of Cornwall‎^[1], page 302: “the Cornish call this immersion Boussening, from Beuzi or Bidhyzi, in the Cornu-british and Armoric, signifying to dip, or drown.”

[1]