Forms: 3, 8 bonie, 6 bony, bonye, 6– bonny, bonnie. [Of uncertain origin: presumably to be referred in some way to OF. bon, bone ‘good,’ or its ME. naturalized form bon, bone, boone (see BOON a.); but no satisfactory account of the formation can be offered. In Sc. the pronunciation is often bōnie (bō·ni, bō·ni, in Border Counties even bū·ni).
A notable coincidence in form and sense is presented by the Sp. bonito ‘pretty, bonny,’ dim. of bueno ‘good’; but there is no corresponding form in OF. to which ME. bonie might be referred. And analogy does not much favor the possibility of a derivative form from ME. bon, bone, good.]
1. Pleasing to the sight, comely, beautiful, expressing homely beauty. Now in common use only in Scotland and north or midland counties of England; occasionally employed, with local or lyrical effect, by English writers, but not a word of ordinary English prose.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 3903. He wolde, after fyght, Bonie londis to heom dyght.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech., 53. The ymage of our lady … beirand in her arme the bony ymage of hir sone.
1570. Levins, Manip., 102. Bonye, scitus, facetus.
1589. Greene, Menaph. (Arb.), 43. I saw a little one, A bonny prety one.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., V. ii. 12. The bonnie beast he loued so well. Ibid. (1602), Ham., IV. v. 187. For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., I. 64. Merry lads are playing Each with his bonny lass.
1790. Burns, Tam O’Shanter. Auld Ayr, wham ne’er a town surpasses For honest men and bonny lasses.
c. 1820. Scott, Bonny Dundee. For it’s up with the bonnets of bonny Dundee.
1856. Longf., Bird & Ship, iii. I greet thee, bonny boat.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 23. Here Dinah turned to Bessy Cranage, whose bonny youth and evident vanity had touched her with pity.
b. Sometimes as a term of fondness or coaxing, as in ‘my bonnie bairn.’
a. 1540. Peblis to Play, 13. My bonny heart, how says the sang?
† 2. a. In earlier Eng. it appears to have often had the sense: Of fine size, big (as a good quality). Obs.
a. 1600. Hooker, Serm., vii. III. 878. Issachar though bonny & strong enough unto any labours, doth couch.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., II. iii. 8. The bonnie priser of the humorous Duke.
b. In mod. dialect, and to a certain extent colloquially, it has the sense of ‘looking well (in health),’ often connoting healthy plumpness: ‘It seems to be generally used in conversation for plump’ (J.).
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XI. ix. The bonny housemaid begins to repair the disordered drum-room.
1877. Holderness Gloss. (E. D. S.), s.v., Hoo’s thy wife? Oh, she’s bonny.
1877. E. Peacock, Lincolnsh. Gloss., Bonny, well in health.
† 3. Pleasant-looking, smiling, gladsome, ‘bright.’
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. iii. 69. Then sigh not so, but let them goe And be you blithe and bonnie.
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Scornf. Lady, III. ii. Be blithe and bonny, steward.
1681. Jordan, London’s Joy, in Heath, Grocer’s Comp. (1869), 547. From torments or troubles of Body or Mind, Your Bonny Brisk Planters are free as the wind.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 242. It will make you bonny and blith.
1820. Scott, Ivanhoe, v. Report speaks you a bonny monk.
4. Sc. and Eng. dial. A general epithet of eulogy or appreciation, answering nearly to ‘fine’ in its vaguest sense: like ‘fine’ also often ironical. Sometimes also = ‘considerable in extent or amount.’ To pay a bonny penny for: to give a long or heavy price for. A bonny row: a ‘jolly’ uproar. Bonny and: = ‘fine and,’ ‘nice and,’ considerably.
a. 1548. Thrie Priests Peblis, 9 (Jam.). Quhilk … of many smals couth mak This bonie pedder ane gude fute pak.
1752. Walpole, Lett. H. Mann (1834), III. 6. Mr. Chute cannot bear it; says it … looks bonny & Irish.
1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, VII. v. (1842), 425. Glenstroan … is a gay bonnie bit addendum.
1827. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., xi. Wks. (1855), 283. You’re a bonny fellow to ask that question.
1863. Mrs. Toogood, Yorksh. Dial., It will mak a bonny country-side talk.
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v., A bonny building, and a bonny size—handsome and spacious.
1881. Evans, Leicestersh. Wds., Bonny, good, jolly, pretty, &c., an almost universally applicable epithet of eulogy, but especially applicable to a healthy plumpness.
† B. absol. or quasi-sb. A bonny one. Obs.
a. 1529. Skelton, Elynour Rum., 227. Wyth ‘Bas, my pretty bonny.’
C. quasi-adv. Finely, beautifully.
c. 1826. A. Cunningham, ‘The sun rises bright.’ My hamely hearth burn’t bonnie.
