[This, and its vb. BORE2 arose after 1750; etymology unknown.
(Usually supposed to be f. BORE v.2, which is then regarded as a fig. use of BORE v.1, with the notion of ‘persistent annoyance’ (cf. Ger. drillen). But it seems impossible in this way to account for sense 1 of the sb., which is apparently the source of the other senses, and of the verb itself. If related at all to BORE v.1 or sb.1, the connection must be much more indirect; possibly there is an allusion to some now forgotten anecdote. The phrase ‘French bore’ naturally suggests that the word is of French origin; bourre padding, hence (in 18th c.) triviality, bourrer to stuff, to satiate, might be thought of; but without assuming some intermediate link these words do not quite yield the required sense.)]
† 1. The malady of ennui, supposed to be specifically ‘French,’ as ‘the spleen’ was supposed to be English; a fit of ennui or sulks; a dull time.
1766. Earl of March, Lett., in Jesse, G. Selwyn, II. 88. [date misprinted 1776] Augustus Hervey and Lord Cadogan are in a long bore. Ibid., G. J. Williams, Lett., 9 Dec. Ibid., 108. He sits every night next to Lord Temple, and has a complete bore of it for two hours. Ibid., Lett., 30 Dec., Ibid., 121. Your last letter was the most cheerful that I have received from you, and … without that d—d French bore.
1767. Ld. Carlisle, Lett., 8 March, Ibid., 150. I enclose you a packet of letters, which if they are French, the Lord deliver you from the bore.
† b. One who suffers from ‘bore’ or ennui, or affects lack of interest in anything.
1766. G. J. Williams, Lett., 25 Nov., in Jesse, G. Selwyn, II. 86. You are … such a French bore, and all against your poor country, that I believe you imagine your letters are opened at the post-office.
2. A thing that bores or causes ennui; an annoyance, a nuisance.
1778. Refutation, 16. Advice is well enough—reproof’s a bore.
1807. Antid. Miseries Hum. Life, 27. Conversation is a bore, as ’tis generally managed.
1831. Whately, in Life (1866), I. 111. A formal dinner-party even at Oxford is a bore.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 190. It is as great a bore as to hear a poet read his own verses.
3. A tiresome or uncongenial person; one who wearies or worries. Blue bore (quot. 1837): in punning allusion to the tavern sign of the Blue Boar.
1812. Edin. Rev., XX. 74. A king is in these tribes really regarded as a sort of … bore.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. vi. 192. The true bore is that man who thinks the world is only interested in one subject, because he himself can only comprehend one.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., li. ‘Ungrammatical twaddler, was it, sir?’ ‘Yes, sir, it was … and blue-bore, sir, if you like that better.’
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xi. He says the country girls are bores; indeed, I don’t think he is far wrong.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., i. 3. ‘Madam, all men are bores, except when we want them.’
