Forms: 1 búr, 2–3 bur, 3 bure, 3–6 bour, 3–7 boure, bowr, 4 bor, 4–7 bowre, 5 bowur, 6 boire, 9 (bowre), dial. boor, 5– bower. [OE. búr dwelling, etc., corresp. to OS. bûr neut., OHG. búr masc. (MHG. búr, mod.G. bauer bird-cage), LG. buur, bur m., ON. búr (Sw. bur, Da. buur):—OTeut. *bûro(m:—Aryan bhūrom, f. bhu, in Teut. bū- to dwell. Hence NEIGHBOUR (OE. néah-ʓebúr) and BOOR.]
1. A dwelling, habitation, abode. In early use lit. A cottage; in later use a poetical word for ‘abode.’
Beowulf (Z.), 2455. On his suna bure.
a. 1000. Chart. Eadred, in Cod. Dipl., V. 336. To ðen haʓan; andlang haʓan bur.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A 963. Bryng me to þat bygly bylde, let me se þy blysful bor.
1567. Studley, Seneca’s Hippol. (1581), 75. The whilst the fire shall burne These bones, set ope his buriall bower.
1568. Like will to L., in Hazl., Dodsl., III. 353. Of all iniquity thou art the bow’r.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Sept., 97. The blacke bowre of sorrowe [gloss. hell].
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 281, ¶ 11. Our Historians describe the Apartments of Rosamond’s Bower.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xii. The primrose pale, and violet flower, Found in each cliff a narrow bower.
b. esp. a vague poetic word for an idealized abode, not realized in any actual dwelling.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., cxxvii. 7. Sweet beauty hath no name, no holy bower.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 46. The bowr of earthly blisse.
1770. Goldsm., Des. Vill., 5. Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 164. Plucks amaranthine joys from bowers of bliss.
1858. Neale, Bernard de M., 34. O! princely bow’rs, O land of flow’rs.
c. A fancy rustic cottage or country residence.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xv. In that soft vale, a lady’s bower.
1862. Athenæum, 30 Aug., 270. Miss Helen Campbell … gave an entertainment in his honour, at her bower in the Clachan Glen.
† d. A covered stall or booth at a fair. rare.
1506. in Glasscock, Records St. Michael’s, 31. Rec. on michelmas day for stonding of bowers wtn th chirchyerde ixd.
2. An inner apartment, esp. as distinguished from the ‘hall,’ or large public room, in ancient mansions; hence, a chamber, a bed-room. Still in north. dial.; in literature only archaic and poetic.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 124. Cubiculum, bedcofa vel bur.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 139. He … ches þere crundel to halle · and eorðhole to bure.
c. 1205. Lay., 29218. Þer inne he bulde ænne bur.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3921. A godd had laban in his bure.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nonne Prestes T., 12. Fful sooty was hir bour and eek hire halle.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46. Bowre, chambyr, thalamus, conclave.
c. 1460. in Babees Bk. (1868), 13. In halle, yn bowre, or at þe borde.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 616. Euerilk office, baith in hall and bour.
1596. Spenser, Astrophel, 28. Merily masking both in bowre and hall.
1674. Ray, N. C. Wds., 7. Boor, the Parlour, Bedchamber or inner room. Cumb.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. vii. Now torch and menial tendance led Chieftain and knight to bower and bed.
1851. Cumbld. Gloss., Boor, the inner room.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. ix. 357. His sons … carried him to the king’s own bower.
b. Especially applied to a lady’s private apartment; a boudoir. Now only poetic.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 109 (Bosw.). On bure, ahof bryd Abrahames hleahtor.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4411. Was neuer don to leuedi mar Scam … þan … Ioseph soght on me in bour.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 879. The kynges doughter lay in her boure.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 2165. Sayde þe heþen kyng ‘In my doȝtere bour þar þay ben.’
1810. Scott, Lady of L., V. viii. Love-lorn swain in lady’s bower.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Rom. of Page, x. Her bower may suit thee ill!
1866. Kingsley, Herew., viii. 135. She enticed him into her bower.
3. A place closed in or overarched with branches of trees, shrubs, or other plants; a shady recess, leafy covert, arbor.
The first two quots. rather anticipate than illustrate this use of the word.
[c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., C. 437. He busked hym a bour … Of hay & of euer-ferne & erbez a fewe.
1509. Fisher, Wks., 232. Caused an yue tree to sprynge vp sodeynly rounde aboute his boure.]
1523–5. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. LXXX. (R.). To lodge in bowers of trees, more nerer to the towne.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 210. Ditties … Sung by a faire Queene in a Summers Bowre.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 246. Where the unpierc’t shade Imbround the noontide Bowrs.
1706. Addison, Rosamond, I. i. The bower, that wanders In meanders, Ever bending … Glades on Glades.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., I. s.v., Care must be had that you do not confound the Word Bower with Arbour; because the first is always built long and arch’d, whereas the second is either round or square at Bottom, and has a sort of Dome or Ceiling at the Top.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., 5th Sund. aft. Easter. A gracious rain, freshening the weary bower.
4. A structure reared by the bower-bird.
1869. Nicholson, Zool., lxvi. (1880), 625. These curious birds have the habit of building very elaborate bowers…. These bowers are wholly independent of their nests.
1884. Grant Allen, in Pall Mall Gaz., 20 Sept., 3/2. He had brought a bower of the Australian bower-birds over to England.
5. Attrib. and Comb., as bower eaves, -enshaded, -head, etc.; bower-may (arch.) = BOWER-MAIDEN; bower-page, a lady’s attendant (arch.); † bower-thane (see quot.); † bowre-window (see quot.). Also BOWER-BIRD, -MAIDEN, -WOMAN.
1842. Tennyson, Margaret, v. Look out below your *bower-eaves.
1816. L. Hunt, Rimini, III. 442. *Bower-enshaded kisses.
a. 1825. Ballad ‘Fair Annie,’ xi. in Child, Ballads, III. (1885), 76/1. She is up to her *bower-head, To behold both sea and land.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 48. No life of bliss Like sewing gold mid *bower-mays.
1830. C. Clarke, 3 Courses, 17. The striplings … more adapted to be *bower-pages to those high-born dames.
1845. Thorpe, trans. Lappenburg’s Hist. Eng. (L.). The chamberlain, or *bower-thane, was also the royal treasurer.
1805. Repton, Landscape Gard., 178. Large recesses or bays, sometimes called *bowre windows, and now bow windows.
