a. Obs. Forms: 3–6 boistous, boystous, buystous(e, (also 4 booistous, boystoyse, 5 boistose, boistoys, boistez, boysteis), buystuous, boystyous, (bostuous, bioustious), 5–6 boystows(e, boi-, boysteous, -ious, 6 buistous, boystuous(e, (bostyous). Also, North. 4 bostwys, bustwys, (boustes), 4–5 boustous, 5–6 bustus, Sc. bustows(e, boustous, bousteous, -tious, busteous, -ious, -uous, -uus. [Of uncertain etymology. Certainly not connected with bost, BOAST (as has been suggested on the ground of the 16th-c. Sc. spelling boist for bōst). The phonology and form suggest French origin, and in form the ME. word exactly answers to OF. boisteus, AF. boistous, mod.F. boiteux lame; but no connection of sense appears to be traceable, at least if the etymology proposed by Diez for the French word from boiste ‘box,’ ‘knee-joint’ holds good. The essential meaning in Eng. from the first appears to have been ‘coarse, rough,’ but senses 1–4 are all nearly equally early. The later variants boisteous, boystuous, led to the modern BOISTEROUS.
(The mod. Cornwall dialect has in WCorn. boist corpulence, boustis, bustious stout, overfat, burdensome to oneself; in ECorn. boostis fat, well-conditioned: cf. sense 3. This occurrence of a sense so long obs. in literary Eng., and esp. of an apparent radical sb. boist, not known at all in literature, is very curious: but there are no similar words known in Celtic Cornish. The Welsh ‘bwyst wildness’ appears to be a figment of Owen Pugh, but bwystus ‘wild, ferocious’ occurs in the 14th c., and may be a deriv. of an obs. *bwyst:—L. bēstia; or it may be merely the ME. buystous.)]
1. Of persons, etc.: Rough, rude; untaught, rustic; coarse, unpolished.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 5659. it is boystous folk.
1340. Ayenb., 103. We þet byeþ greate and boystoyse to spekene of zuo heȝe þinge.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. II. 311. Men þat were vnkonnynge and boistous as bestes.
1388. Wyclif, 2 Chron. xiii. 7. Roboam was buystuouse [Vulg. rudis, 1382 rude].
1494. Fabyan, V. cxix. 96. The state of holye Churche in Brytayne was as yet rude and boystyous.
1500. Ortus Voc., in Promp. Parv., 42. Rudis, indoctus, inordinatus, quasi ruri datus, boystous.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. Prol. 48. Weill ma I schaw my burell busteous thocht.
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., 160. They be rude & rusticall, & very boystous in theyr speche.
2. Full of rude strength and fierce vigor; rough, fierce, savage; powerful, violent in action. (Often an epithet of the boar or bear.)
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 910. Bustwys as a blose.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (1865), I. 291. Þe men þere of beeþ boistous men of dedes. Ibid., Rolls Ser. II. 251. Nemproth the bostuous [robustus] oppressor of men.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 774. A blake bustous bere.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 56/3. By strong hande he shal late you goo and in a boystous he shal caste you fro his land.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 5. A strong disease requyreth a stronge medecine … A boysteous horse, a boysteous snaffell.
3. Roughly massive; bulky; clumsy.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 813. Brede vpon a bost-wys bem.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2175. The boustous launce þe bewelles attamede.
1485. Caxton, Chas. Gt., 29. Of body he was moche ample & boystous of stature.
a. 1547. Earl Surrey, Æneid, IV. 582. Like to the aged boysteous bodied oke.
1567. Turberv., Poems, in Chalmers, English Poets, II. 616/2. Time makes the tender twig to bousteous tree to grow. (Still dial.; see note to Etymology.)
4. Coarse in texture, gross, rough; thick, stiff.
1388. Wyclif, Matt. ix. 16. No man putteth a clout of buystous clothe in to an elde clothing.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. xvi. Þe laste and þe moste boystous of alle [the senses] is gropynge, for þe kynde þerof is erþi.
c. 1450. Merlin, xi. 168. Grete boysteis shone of netes leder.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xxix. 41. Medesweete … hath … leaues … rough, boysteous and harde.
5. Rough, loud or violent in sound.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, VI. xv. (1554), 143 b. The boystous thunder.
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 30. Hee heard ane bousteous Bugill blaw.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 195. Youre wordes ar bustus.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, IV. 5597. That terribyll Trumpat … That boustious blast thay sall obey.
6. Of the wind, sea, weather: Rough and violent, BOISTEROUS.
1470. Harding, Chron., clxxxiv. ii. The wind was so boistous … houses and trees Were blow doune.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. xvi. 3. A foule and a boystuouse day.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 33. The sea was very rough, and the wether stormie and boysteous.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps., xviii. 8. Boystowse vyolence of wyndes.
