bonny

See also: Bonny

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 bonnier or more bonny, superlative bonniest or most bonny)

1. (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,’

Derived terms

• bonnily
• bonniness
• unbonny

 

References

• 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

Clipping of bonfire.

Noun

bonny (plural bonnies)

1. (Northern Ireland, informal) Alternative spelling of bonnie (“bonfire”).

Etymology 3

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Scots

Alternative forms

• boannie, bonie, bonnie, bony

Adjective

bonny (comparative mair bonny, superlative maist bonny)

1. handsome; beautiful; pretty; attractively lively and graceful
   • 1714, John Gay, Friday; or, the Dirge‎^[2]:

     Till bonny Susan sped a-cross the plain.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1786, Robert Burns, Farewell to the Banks of Ayr:

     Far from the bonnie banks of Ayr.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References

• “bonny, adj., adv., n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 7 June 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.

Yola

Noun

bonny

1. Alternative form of boney

References

• 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