Forms: 1 bolla, 2–7 bolle, (5 boole), 6–7 boll, 6 boule, 7 boul, bowle, boal, 7–9 bole, 7– bowl. Pl. bowls, (in 1 bollan, 2–3 -en). [Com. Teut.: OE. bolla = MDu. bolle, Du. bol, ON. bolli wk. masc.; cogn. with OHG. bolla (MHG. bolle), wk. fem., ‘bud, round pod, globular vessel’; hence OE. heafodbolla ‘brainpan, skull’; f. root *būl- ‘to swell, be swollen’; cf. also OHG. bolôn, MHG. boln to roll. The normal modern spelling would be BOLL, which came down to 17th c. in sense of ‘round vessel,’ and is still used in sense of ‘round seed-vessel’; but the early ME. pronunciation of -ōll as -ōwl (cf. roll, poll, toll, etc.), has left its effects in the modern spelling bowl in the sense of ‘vessel,’ which is thus at once separated in form from other senses of its own (see BOLL sb.1), and confounded with BOWL sb.2 a ball, from Fr. boule.]
1. ‘A [round] vessel to hold liquids, rather wide than deep; distinguished from a cup, which is rather deep than wide.’ J. Usually hemispherical or nearly so.
Historically, a bowl is distinguished from a basin by its more hemispherical shape; a ‘basin’ being proportionally shallower and wider, or with the margin curved outward, as in the ordinary wash-hand basin; but the actual use of the words is capricious, and varies from place to place; in particular, the ordinary small earthenware vessels, used for porridge, soup, milk, sugar, etc., which are historically bowls, and are so called in Scotland and in U.S., are always called in the south-east of England, and hence, usually in literary English, basins. The earlier usage remains in salad-bowl, finger-bowl (now also basin), punch-bowl, and the convivial or social bowl (see b).
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 300. Genim … tweʓen bollan fulle wæteres.
c. 1205. Lay., 19783. Heo comen to þare welle and heore bollen feolde.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Chan. Yem. Prol. & T., 657. Bryngeth eek with yow a bolle or a panne fful of water.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 43. Bolle, dysche, cantare. Bolle, vesselle, concha, luter.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, 12. A boole of coppre. Ibid. (1481), Reynard (Arb.), 113. A grete bolle full of scaldyng water.
1563. Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 150. Set either a boule or pan of water.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrimes, II. 1735. They dig deepe pits in the earth, and wash the earth in great bolls, and therein they find the gold.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VII. xiii. (1686), 300. Water in a boal.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Briery Crk., iii. 49. Cups and basins which the younger girl had washed in the wooden bowl.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xvii. 163. John will … give the baby all the sugar in the bowl.
b. esp. as a drinking vessel; whence the bowl, drinking, conviviality.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John xix. 29. Bolla vel copp full of æcced.
c. 1205. Lay., 14994. Þene bolle heo sette to hire chin.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1511. in bryȝt bollez, ful bayn birlen þise oþer.
1414. Test. Ebor. (1836), I. 362. Lego … unum ciphum de argento, qui vocatur le Bolle.
1548. Latimer, Ploughers (1868), 35. As manie as drancke of the pardon boll should haue pardon.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 319. One onely wassailing cup or Bolle walked round about the boorde.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 72. Giue me a Bowle of Wine.
1651. Miller of Mansfield, 9. Nappie Ale … in a browne Bole.
1663. Cowley, Verses & Ess. (1669), 107. The Beechen Bowl fomes with a floud of Wine.
1706. Addison, Rosamond, II. vi. Quickly drain the fatal Bowl.
1805. Southey, Madoc in W., xv. O’er the bowl they commun’d.
1811. Lett. fr. Son to Mother, 11.
| When too keen are my feelings, I fly to the bowl; | |
| Thence quaff short oblivion and ease to my soul. |
fig. and transf.
c. 1025. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives St. George, I. 312. Ænne mycelne bollan mid bealuwe afylled.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 410. Þi drynke worth deþ and deop helle þy bolle.
c. 1575. Gascoigne, Fruites Warre (1831), 212. Hope brings the boll whereon they all must quaffe.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Great Exemp., II. Add. x. 9. The World presents us with faire language … these are the outsides of the bole.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 15. The tiny bowl of a man’s happiness was spilt upon the ground.
c. With prefixed substantive, as ale-, sugar-, etc.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 153. Drownd theyr soules in ale boules.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 39. Accustomed … of their sculs to make drinking-bolles.
1709. Tatler, No. 42, ¶ 13. A Mustard-Bowl to make Thunder with.
† d. A tub or round vessel for other purposes.
a. 1000. Cursor M., 5524 (Gött.). Apon þair neckes sal þai bere Bollis [Cott. hott = hod] wid stan and wid mortere.
2. transf. The contents of a bowl, a bowlful.
1530. Palsgr., 459. This felowe blussheth lyke a butchers bolle.
1605. Camden, Rem., 130. New named with a bole of wine powred vpon their heads.
1617. Janua Ling., 814/106. The butler hath drunke vp a whole bolle and a goblet of beere.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Satyr & Pedlar, Poet. Wks. 1774, I. 59. A bowl prepar’d of sav’ry broth.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 214. Nor robb’d the farmer of his bowl of cream.
3. The more or less bowl-shaped part of any vessel or utensil; e.g., of a cup or flagon, tobacco-pipe, spoon, candlestick; the scale-pan of a balance.
1386. Rymer, Fœdera, XVIII. 143. One cupp, the boll thereof agett ovall fashion called the Constables Cupp, with an aggett in the foote.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxxi. (1495), 940. The weyght is rightfull whan both the bolles hangyth euen.
1611. Bible, Zech. iv. 2. A candlesticke all of gold, with a bowle vpon the top of it.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 197. Which so well resembled … [a tobacco pipe] both in the boll and heel.
1692. in Capt. Smith Seaman’s Gram., II. xxxi. 144. The Bole or Bore of the Morter, next to the Wad.
1814. Scott, Wav., I. ix. 123. The grotesque face on the bole of a German tobacco-pipe.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast., xix. 55. They smoke a great deal … using pipes with large bowls.
1885. Mag. of Art, Sept., 458/2. The bowl of the spoon.
b. The basin of a fountain, etc.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 52. A fayr formed boll, of a three foot ouer: from wheans sundrye fine pipez did distill continuall streamz intoo the receyt of the Foountayn.
1870. F. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 90. The bowl [of the font] is dated 1664.
c. A bowl-shaped natural basin.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 23. 165. The rim of a flattened bowl quite clasped by the mountains.
† 4. Naut. (See quot.) Obs.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 20. The Top, Cap, or Bowle, which is a round thing at the head of either Mast for men to stand in.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., II. xi. § iv. 281. Parts of Vessels … fixed and upright; or the upper parts of these, round and prominent: Mast-Top, Boul.
1721–1800. Bailey, Bowl (in a ship), a round space at the Head of the Mast for the Men to stand in.
5. The blade of an oar. (Cf. bowl of spoon in 3.)
1805. Southey, Madoc in Azt., xxv. Wks. V. 367. Oars From whose broad bowls the waters fall and flash.
6. (See quot.)
1884. British Almanack & Comp., 32. The nets … are further buoyed up by small kegs, called ‘bowls.’
7. Comb., as bowl-basin, -cup, -shaped adj.: also bowl-barrow, a prehistoric mound of the shape of an inverted bowl; bowl-fellow, a drinking companion; bowlful, the content of a bowl; † bowl-piece, a piece (of plate) of the form of a bowl; bowl-weft (see quot.)
1846. Knight, Old England, 7. On every side of Stonehenge we are surrounded with barrows. Some are of the shape of bowls, and some of bells … Long-barrow, *bowl-barrow, bell-barrow.
1607. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, Introd. 6. *Boll basons (whereof one hath brinkes) iiij.
1420. E. E. Wills (1882), 45–6. A *bolle cuppe i-keueryd of syluer. Also a bolle pece.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 16. She and her *boul felowes sitting by the fire.
1611. Bible, Judg. vi. 38. A *bowle full of water.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., II. s.v. Juice, A Bowlful of the Juice.
1459. Test. Ebor. (1855), II. 235. Duas pecias argenti et coopertas vocatas *boll-peces.
1479. Inv. Plate, in Paston Lett., III. 273. J grete boll pees, with a cover.
1864. N. & Q., Ser. III. VI. 459/1. *Bowl-weft … applied to materials abstracted by weavers in Lanarkshire … to exchange it with travelling hawkers for bowls and other earthenware dishes.
¶ See also BOLL, BOULE.
