Forms: 4–5 bolace, 5 bolys, -ysse, 5–6 bolas, bulas, 6 bulles, -ase, -asse, 7 bullas, 6–7 bulloes, bullies, -eis, 9 (dial. bulloo, -y), 6– bullace. Pl. 4 bolaces, bolas, 6 bullises, bulleys, -aze, boollesse, 6–7 bullies, bullase, 7 bullis, -eis, -aise, -ice, -ices, -ises, -asis, 7– bullace, -aces, (Sc. bullees, Devon. bullens.) [app. connected with OF. beloce of same meaning (13th c., Littré); but its precise relation to the OF. word, and the etymology of the latter, are not ascertained.
The Ir. bulistair, Ga. bulaistear, sometimes accepted as the etymon, appear to be adopted from ME. bolastir = bullace-tree. Legonidec gives a Breton polos, bolos ‘prune sauvage,’ and Florio 1611 has an It. bulloi ‘bulloes, slowne, or skegs,’ which may possibly be ultimately connected.]
1. A wild plum (Prunus insititia) larger than the sloe; there are two varieties, the black (or dark-blue) and the white; also well-known as a semi-cultivated fruit.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne (1809), 66. Gete vs … bolaces & blakeberies þat on breres growen.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 1377. Notes, aleys, and bolas.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (1840), 199. As bryght as bugyl or ellys bolace.
1483. Cath. Angl., 47. A Bulas, pepulum.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 140. Bulleys plummes and suche other, may be sette of stones.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 76. Boollesse, black and white.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physic, 183/2. Take whyt bullises pounded to pappe.
1629. Parkinson, Orchard, xiii. 578. The black Bulleis also are those … that they call French Prunes.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 293. Bullices likewise, both white, speckled and black, are of the like Nature.
1664. Cotton, Scarron., IV. (1741), 137. So have I seen in Forest tall … Bullace tumble from the Tree.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 394. Damasines, and Bullace.
1762. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, iii. (D.). Dick and I be come hither to pick haws and bullies.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 236. To make Bullace Cheese. Take your bullace when they are full ripe, [etc.].
1830. Scott, Demonol., viii. 248. While gathering bullees … he saw two greyhounds.
1837. Hood, Mem. T. H. (1860), I. 263. Our landlady … comforted her inside with a mess of dried bullaces in sour wine!
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), 61. Bulloe, the sloe or wild plum.
b. Applied fancifully to a black eye.
a. 1659. Cleveland, Wks. (1687), 256. The sparkling Bullies of her Eyes Like two eclipsed Suns did rise.
2. The tree bearing the plum.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 670. You shall also by no meanes alongst your pale walke plant fruit trees, blacke-thorne, or bullies.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 119/3. Spinous or thorny Shrubs whose Fruit may be eaten, as … Bullas.
1859. W. S. Coleman, Woodlands (1862), 119. The Bullace Plum … a variety of the common Sloe, from which it chiefly differs in the superior size of all its parts, especially the fruit.
3. Attrib. and Comb., as bullace-fruit, -plum; † bullace-bay a., of a particular dark-bay color (said of a horse); bullace-tree (see also BULLESTER).
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 42. Bolas tre, pepulus.
1530. Palsgr., 199/2. Bolas frute, prunelle.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 768. Their egges … are round … in quantity as big as bullies plums.
1684. Bucaniers Amer. (1699), 19. Yaco … bears a fruit like our Bullace or Damson plums.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2576/4. The other [Gelding] a dark Bullace-Bay.
1848. W. Gardiner, Flora of Forfar., 54. P. insititia, Wild Bullace-tree.
