What is the etymology of the word that we in the UK pronounce "boy" and our cousins across the pond pronounce BOO- EE (buoy)?

TabbyTom

According to the Oxford English Dictionary and Chambers, the ultimate source is the Latin "boia," meaning a collar and hence a fetter (a buoy is tethered or fettered to a place). It passed into the Romance languages and from them into the Germanic ones. The OED says that it's not clear whether the English word was taken from the Old French "boye" or the Middle Dutch "boei." (Modern French is "bouée). The American pronunciation suggest a Dutch influence, I think. Jun 13 05, 4:46 AM

mibmob

Thank you! A yay but I didn't know. Jun 13 05, 6:46 AM

Flem-ish

Just a detail. Middle Dutch was not 'boei', but either 'boye' or 'boeye', anyway a bisyllabic word, and a lot closer to the original Latin boi-a. The bisyllabic form is still current with speakers of the dialectal Flemish variant of Dutch. Just as in Chaucerian English substantives had not yet lost their "weak endings" in Middle-Dutch. Seventeenth-century Dutch had monosyllabic "boei". Not too clear to me how the monosyllabic Dutch variant could have become a bisyllabic again in American English with stress on final syllable. Did Americans pick up a Flemish or a Zeelandese accent? There are some place-names that are definitely Flemish rather than Dutch,(e.g. Hoboken), but it's unlikely that Flemish sailors played a major role in the history of American English. The exact etymological chain remains somewhat of a mystery to me. French link seems at least as plausible. Bou-ée is bisyllabic and has stress on final syllable. There is also an Old French word buie which meant "link", "tie". The chain may have been : Latin boia > Old French buie > Middle Dutch boeye > Modern French bouée > American English boo-'ee. (?) Sources: French Robert and Dutch van Dale Etymological Dictionaries. Jun 13 05, 5:37 PM

mibmob

THanks to all. And yays all round. Jun 14 05, 8:36 AM

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