bawn en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /bɔːn/
Etymology
From Irish bán, alternative form of bábhún (“walled enclosure”).
Meanings
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(Ireland) A cattle-fort; a building used to shelter cattle.
The Grand Question Debated Whether Hamilton's Bawn Should be Turned into a Barrack or a Malt-house − 1729 This Hamilton's bawn, while it sticks in my hand, / I lose by the house what I get by the land; / But how to dispose of it to the best bidder, / For a barrack or malthouse, we now must consider.
1729, Jonathan Swift, The Grand Question Debated, Thomas Sheridan (editor), John Nichols (editor, revised edition), 1812, The British Classics, Volume 45: The works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D.: Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, Volume XI, page 163But these round hills and square bawnes, which you see so strongly trenched and throwne up
1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:When he was coming into the bawn at dinner-time, what work did he find Jack at but pulling armfuls of the thatch off the roof, and peeping into the holes he was making?
1892, Joseph Jacobs (editor), Jack and His Master, Celtic Fairy Tales
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(Ireland) A defensive wall built around a tower house. It was once used to protect livestock during an attack.
The cattle, therefore, would be brought into the bawn at night, as is stated by the early 17th-century writer Fynes Moryson who wrote that the Irish cattle “eat only by day, and then are brought at evening within the bawns of castles, where they stand or lie all night in a dirty yard without so much as a lock of hay.”
2004, Colm J. Donnelly, “Passage or Barrier? Communication between Bawn and Tower House in Late Medieval Ireland – the Evidence from County Limerick”, in Château Gaillard 21: Études de castellologie médiévale: La Basse-cour: Actes du colloque international de Maynooth (Irlande), 23-30 août 2002, page 57:He [...] then made his way to where he belonged in Bronding country, home again, sure of his ground in strongroom and bawn.
1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 18:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| bawns | Number=Plur | lexicographic |