Dictionary

booly en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈbuːli/

Etymology

From Irish buaile (“cattle enclosure, summer pasturage for cows”), from Old Irish bó (“cow”) or būale, probably from Latin bovile (“cattle stall”) or bubile, from Latin bos (“cow, bull, ox”) (bov-).

Meanings

1. (Ireland, obsolete) A company of Irish herdsmen, or a single herdsman, wandering from place to place with flocks and herds, and living on their milk.
2. (Ireland, obsolete) An enclosed shelter in the pasture land, usually in the mountainous parts, for the shelter of cattle or their herders.
   • they are evermore succoured and finde releife only in these boolies, being upon the waste places 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:
   • The term booley was not confined to the mountainous districts; for in some parts of Ireland it was applied to any place where cattle were fed or milked, or which was set apart for dairy purposes.

Forms

Synonyms

shieling · booley house