BEVY

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
tcward
Wordmaster
Posts: 789
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: The Old North State

BEVY

Postby tcward » Mon Jul 18, 2005 7:34 pm

bevy
c.1430, collective noun of quails and ladies, from Anglo-Fr. bevée, of unknown origin. One supposed definition of the word is "a drinking bout," but this is perhaps a misprint of bever, from O.Fr. beivre (see beverage). Still, it's possible that the original sense could be a company of birds gathered at a puddle or pool for drinking or bathing.
Interesting that the original meaning of this word applied only to groups of girls or women, or birds (specifically quail...?)...

-Tim

Verbum
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2005 10:05 pm

Postby Verbum » Tue Jul 19, 2005 12:09 pm

Dictionaries also give us "a bevy of roes". A roe is a roedeer or roebuck, a small European deer.

I looked up "bevy" in Harrap's Shorter French-English Dictionary. For " a bevy of girls" it gives "essaim de jeunes filles" - a swarm of girls! Bzzzz! Bzzzz! Ouch!

Verbum
In principio erat Verbum


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests