Dictionary

boor en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /bʉːɹ/ (Northern-Ireland, Scotland)
• audio
• (US) audio
• /buːɹ/ (Ireland)
• /bʊɹ/ (General-American)
• /bʊə/ without the pour–poor merger
• /boɹ/ pour–poor merger
• /bɔː/ pour–poor merger
• bo͝or (General-American)
• audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch boer (“peasant”). Doublet of bauer, Boer, and bower (“peasant, farmer”). For the meaning development from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-, compare with other derived from this term Russian обыва́тель (obyvátelʹ, “the average man/citizen, the man in the street, philistine, resident, inhabitant”), Polish bydło (“cattle, rabble”) (whence Russian бы́дло (býdlo, “rabble, uncultured or stupid people, sheeple”)). Compare typologically with pagan (see more).

Meanings

1. A peasant.
   • Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins say it, I’ll swear it. c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], line 155:
   • For all the rich array and goodly port and countenance of Corinius, he seemed but a very boor beside the Lord Brandoch Daha, and dearly did each hate the other. 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 30:
2. A Boer, white South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent.
3. A yokel, country bumpkin.
4. An uncultured person; a vulgarian.
   • I question if any man ever saw his absent friend more clearly than did Shakespeare his Falstaff, for instance, or Scott his Balfour of Burleigh. But does it, therefore, follow that either of these great writers would, when hungry, have summoned up before him a clearer picture of his approaching dinner, than does the equally hungry or very much hungrier boor? This I doubt; and on the same principle I doubt if the said boor would see his dinner more clearly than a wolf, bear, or tiger would theirs when in quest of it. 1905, Edmund Selous, The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands, p. 107

Forms

Relateds

boorishness · boorishly · boorish

Synonyms

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Translations (69)

eo buro (a Boer, white South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent) · pt rústico (an uncultured person) · bg бур (a Boer, white South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent) · it becero (a peasant) · it bifolco (a peasant) · pl prostak (an uncultured person) · vo jigrobälan (an uncultured person) · fa ارنئوت (an uncultured person) · el αγροίκος (a yokel) · fr rustre (a peasant) · gl paifoco (an uncultured person) · it boero (a Boer, white South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent) · fr mufle (an uncultured person) · gl badoco (an uncultured person) · de Rüpel (an uncultured person) · gl paiolo (an uncultured person) · vo higrobälan (an uncultured person) · cs primitiv (an uncultured person) · ro incult (an uncultured person) · ga abhlóir (an uncultured person) · ga amhlán (an uncultured person) · cs buran (a yokel) · ru грубия́нка (an uncultured person) · cs buran (an uncultured person) · sv bonnläpp (an uncultured person) · fi moukka (an uncultured person) · cs neotesanec (an uncultured person) · ota هودوك (an uncultured person) · tr hödük (an uncultured person) · ro țăran (a yokel) · es huaso (a peasant) · it cafone (an uncultured person) · bg грубиян (an uncultured person) · la rupex (an uncultured person) · tr kıro (an uncultured person) · bg селянин (a peasant) · it buzzurro (a peasant) · es patán (an uncultured person) · nl boer (a peasant) · it cafone (a peasant) · ro bădăran (a yokel) · pl Bur (a Boer, white South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent) · fr rustre (an uncultured person) · es cateto (an uncultured person) · ota چوبان (an uncultured person) · ro mojic (a yokel) · ro necioplit (an uncultured person) · it burino (a peasant) · de Tölpel (a yokel) · gl paduán (an uncultured person) · ru ха́мка (an uncultured person) · ru мужи́к (an uncultured person) · el αγροίκος (an uncultured person) · fr plouc (a yokel) · fr beauf (an uncultured person) · gl pailán (an uncultured person) · fr plouc (an uncultured person) · es paleto (a yokel) · fi jyväjemmari (an uncultured person) · vo grobälan (an uncultured person) · tr köylü (a peasant) · es paleto (an uncultured person) · ru хам (an uncultured person) · ru грубия́н (an uncultured person) · fr pignouf (an uncultured person) · ro țăran (a peasant) · pl cham (an uncultured person) · sv tölp (an uncultured person) · gl pailaroco (an uncultured person)