boon

Meanings

Noun

• A prayer; petition.
• That which is asked or granted as a benefit or favor; a gift or benefaction.
• A good thing; a blessing or benefit; a thing to be thankful for.
• An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord.
• The woody portion of flax, separated from the fiber as refuse matter by retting, braking, and scutching.

Adjective

• Good; prosperous.
• Kind; bountiful; benign.
• gay; merry; jovial; convivial.

Related

Similar words

• See gift and favor
• blessing; benefit
• shive, shove

Opposite words

• bane

Origin

• From Middle English boon ("prayer"), from Old Norse bón ("prayer, petition"), from Proto-Germanic *bōniz ("supplication"), influenced by boon. ben; see there for more.
• From Middle English boon, bone, borrowed from Old Northern French boon, from Old French bon ("good"), from Latin bonus ("good"), from Old Latin duonus, dvenos, from Proto-Indo-European *dū- ("to respect").
• From Middle English bone (North), akin to or alteration of Old English bune ("reed").