A Dictionary of Cont..

conventional standards of behavior (from the
erroneous assumption that gypsies came from
Bohemia), has a distinctly literary flavor. As a
synonym for wicked or promiscuous (her bohemian
way of life), it is dated, suggesting the
stern, mustached father of the eighteen-nineties.
bolt. In American political terminology bolt has
a special meaning of breaking away from or
refusing to support one’s party (Senator Wayne
Morse bolted the Republican party). To say that
so-and-so bolted his ticket would convey to an
American the idea that So-and-so, identified with
a definite political party, suddenly refused to
permit his name to appear on the list of candidates
for election put forward by that party and
either went over to the other party or ran for
office as an independent. To an Englishman, as
Horwill remarks, it would convey the idea that
so-and-so had “gulped down a bit of pasteboard
without chewing it.”
bolt from the blue, as a figurative expression for
an unannounced and unexpected blow, has become
hackneyed and should be avoided.
B. F. J. Schonland, in his The Flight of
Thunderbolts, Oxford, 1950, believes that under
certain weather conditions people in a deep
valley might see lightning and hear thunder from
a distant cloud, and the lightning might even
strike in the valley, although the sky immediately
above was blue.
bona fide, originally adverbial and still so used
(Was the contract made bona fide?), is usually
used adjectivally (Was it a bona-fide contract?).
bone. The American slang term bone up, for
studying hard and fast is, in English slang, to
SWOI or to swot up. An American bonehead is in
England, and in America too, a blockhead. The
American boner, slang for a foolish blunder, is
in England a howler.
bone of contention, as a figure for a cause of discord,
is obviously drawn from the dogs and, by
overuse, has gone back to them.
book. See volume.
bookish is today uncomplimentary. It implies that
a man knows books but not life. If the term is
applied to his style, it means that it is stilted and
pedantic. All of this holds equally for booklearned.
To us there is something inexpressibly
pathetic in the great Negro leader’s choosing the
name Booker for himself because of his humble
respect for books.
boon companions is restricted now to the forcedly
jocular and the studiedly literary, and any
term so restricted were well abandoned.
boot; shoe. A boot in America is a covering,
usually of leather, for the foot and leg, reaching
at least to the middle of the calf and often
to the knee or higher. Almost all other forms of
covering for the feet have come to be called
shoes in the United States-sometimes high
shoes, or low shoes, or specifically, sneakers
(rubber and canvas shoes), moccasins, oxfords,
and so on, but generically, aside from boots,
shoes.
In England the word boot means what in
America is designated a shoe, or more widely,
67 boss
a high shoe, that is a shoe that comes just
above the ankle. In both countries shoe is the
term for the foot covering usually worn nowadays,
ending at or below the ankle.
The term bootblack, while still understood in
America, has been almost universally replaced
by shoe-shine boy or shoe-shine man.
bore. See bear.
bored to death; thrilled. To be bored to death or
to tears or to extinction is to be boring, for the
term is now a cliche, as dreary as anything it
seeks to designate.
It is an interesting reflection on the ways of
language that to thrill originally meant what to
bore originally meant: to pierce. And even yet
the two words, in their figurative senses, are
often applied to the same thing; what one person
finds thrilling another finds boring. And thrilled
to death, like bored to death. has become a
clich6.
born; borne. See bear.
bosom, as an anatomical term, was a nineteenth
century elegancy, and while still used, is restricted,
with a sort of prurient modesty, to the
breasts of a female. In the sense of “intimate”
it is still standard in the phrase a bosom friend
but otherwise would not be understood (as in
Regan’s statement to Oswald, in King Lear,
concerning Goneril: I know you are of her
bosom). The old religious phrase in A bruham’s
bosom lingers on in hymns, sermons, and literature,
but few that hear or use it know that it
means “in Abraham’s embrace.”
Shirt bosom was once the regular commercial
term (Shirts made to order, with beautifully
embroidered bosoms-ad in the New York
Times, 1872) but it has been replaced by shirt
front. The fronts of dress shirts were called
bosoms long after the term had been discontinued
in relation to everyday shirts, but even
that has now been abandoned.
boss; master. Boss is an English spelling of the
Dutch word baas, master (formerly uncle; the
Dutch, apparently, having as strong a dislike as
we of acknowledging mastership). It is used
colloquially throughout America. The word
master, in this sense, is never heard, possibly
because it was used by the slaves. We will speak
of mastering a subject or of a master mechanic
and, facetiously, of masterminds, but no American
would apply the word master to anyone for
whom he worked. An American worker in a
shop has no feeling whatever about the Dutch
word. You’ll have to see the boss about that
comes out without a qualm. But he would die a
thousand deaths before he would say, You’ll
have to see the muster about that. It is inconceivable
that an American maid, answering the
door, would say that the master was not at
home.
Save at a few Eastern preparatory schools,
where there is often a conscious effort to use
English terms, Americans do not refer to
teachers as masters. The word is occasionally
used in addressing a letter to a boy, but this
is now done far less than it used to be.