Forms: 2–7 bone, 3–4 bon, (2, 5 bune, 3 bun, 3, 6 boun, 4 boyn, 5 boyne), 4–8 boone, (6 bowne, bound), 5– boon. [a. ON. bón, the etymological correspondent of OE. bén, ME. BENE, prayer. Through such phrases as ‘ask a boon,’ ‘have one’s boon,’ ‘grant a boon,’ taken without analysis, the sense easily passed, by insensible transitions, from ‘prayer,’ to ‘favor asked,’ ‘favor conferred,’ ‘free gift,’ ‘good thing received.’ The adj. boon ‘good’ probably aided in this development.]
† 1. A prayer, petition, entreaty, request. Obs.
a. A prayer to God, Christ, etc.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 63. Ah lauerd god, her ure bone.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 28. Þe seoue bonen iþe Paternoster.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3690. Godd … has herd mi bon. Ibid., 25306. Hu wath it es to bid þis bun.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3948. To ihesu þanne he bad a bone.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 12. Lord of heven, thou here my boyne [rhyme done].
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. v. 90. Ene … can pray and maid hys bone.
b. A request addressed to a human being; esp. the asking of a favor.
c. 1205. Lay., 14912. Þe king uor his fader bone Ȝette hire hir bone [? bene].
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1592. The kyng assentede to his bone [v.r. boone].
c. 1440. Gesta Rom. (1879), 153. He grauntid, that the trespassour shulde aske iij. bonys or he deyde.
1530. Palsgr., 199/2. Bone, a request, requeste.
a. 1581. Campion, Hist. Irel., II. vii. (1633), 94. Her husband assented, and accomplished her boone effectually.
1623. Cockeram, Boone, a request.
† 2. A request made with authority; a command or order couched in the form of a request. Obs.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 631. Ich aros to don his holi bone.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 826. Agayne þe bone of þe burne þat hit forboden hade.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 23. Why hast thou synnyd so sone, Thus hastyly to brake my bone.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 505. Sho obeit his bone.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. ii. 46. Wid. What you command, that rests in me to doe. King. But you will take exceptions to my Boone.
3. transf. The matter prayed for or asked; esp. in to have one’s boon, to grant one his boon. (Cf. use of prayer, request.) Obs. or arch.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 37. Ȝif þu wult habben bone to drihten.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8414. He yatte hir freli al hir bone.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2337. God … sende the thyn bone. Ibid. (c. 1386), Knt.’s. T., 1811. Mars hath his wille, his knyght hath al his boone.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 43. Bone, or graunte of prayer.
1488. Caxton, Chast. Goddes Chyld., 95. Thou shalt haue thy askynge and thy boone.
1513. More, Rich. III., Wks. 59/1. God loued her better, then to graunt her her bone.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1738, I. 245. If the Law come down … to grant lust his boon.
1823. Scott, Peveril, I. vi. 106. Cousin, you must grant me my boon.
b. A thing asked as a favor; a favor (asked for). arch.
c. 1200. Ormin, 7606. Drihhtin haffde ȝatedd himm þatt bone þatt he ȝeorrnde.
c. 1305. Pilate, 229, in E. E. P. (1862), 117. Grante me ane bone, Ȝif me an appel to ete.
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 2790. The yonger mayden than alsone Of the King askes this bone.
c. 1440. York Myst., xviii. 36. Þis bone of þe I crave.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, C ij. I pray yow alle … to graunte me a bone and a yefte.
1575. Appius & Virg., in Hazl., Dodsl., IV. 143. Then tender your child that craveth this bound.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 289. Vpon my feeble knee, I beg this boone, with teares, not lightly shed.
c. 1650. Rob. Hood & Fryer, 116. A boone, a boone, said the curtall fryer … Give me leave to set my fist to my mouth.
1862. Trench, Mirac., xxiii. 343. She has a boon to ask for her daughter.
† c. To pray (one) of a boon. Obs.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 207. He … praid him of a bone, To se this Custe.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom. (1879), 411. I pray the,… of a bone, that thou wilte herborow me this nyght.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 34. I pray you of a bone, that may to fore you alle make my confession.
4. A favor, a gift, a thing freely or graciously bestowed: a. in response to asking. arch.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 282. Send us, lord, this blissid bone.
c. 1520. Adam Bel, 509, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 160. Madame, ye myght have asked a bowne, That shuld have ben worth them all three.
1630. Prynne, God No Impostor, 30. We deserue no boone, no fauor at his hands.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1727), 71. What art thou asking of them, after all? Some mighty boon?
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, VI. 319. A boon like that which Aristotle had obtained from Philip.
b. without the notion of asking. In 17th c. applied to a largess, gratuity or present; but now only fig. and arch.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 508. The Queen … seldom gave boons, and never forgave due debts.
1677. Marvell, Season. Argument, Wks. 1776, II. 558. He … has got by boones, at several times … 3000l. Ibid., 579. A boon given him in the excise which he sold for 13500l.
1679. Pepys, Diary, VI. 130. I have never … done it to the obtaining six-pence from the Crown by any boon extraordinary.
1738. Glover, Leonidas, I. 144. The choicest boons of fate.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. viii. 161. The Earl … had accepted with difficulty, the boon of his freedom.
1845–6. Trench, Huls. Lect., Ser. II. viii. 269. The gods had no better boon for him than an early death.
† c. Grace, favor. rare.
1820. Keats, St. Agnes, xxiv. Down she knelt for heaven’s grace and boon. Ibid. (1821), Isabel, xix. Of thee we now should ask forgiving boon.
5. A gift considered with reference to its value to the receiver; a benefit enjoyed, blessing, advantage, a thing to be thankful for: sometimes without even the notion of giving, but always with that of something that one has no claim to, or that might have been absent. (The usual current sense.)
1767. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Prov. Mass. Bay, i. The charter of Massachusets was not so great a boon.
1820. Keats, St. Agnes, xxxix. An elfin storm from faery land, Of haggard seeming, but a boon indeed.
1855. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, iii. (1860), § 185. The presence of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream … is a great boon to navigation.
1856. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., I. App. 270. The inestimable boon of articulate language.
1876. Green, Short Hist., iii. § 3 (1882), 124. The boon of free and unbought justice was a boon for all.
6. An unpaid service due by a tenant to his lord. Cf. ‘benevolence.’ Obs. exc. dial.
1634. Sanderson, Serm., II. 294. Racking their rents, taking in their commons, overthrowing their tenures, diminishing their wages, encreasing their boons.
1703. Bp. T. Wilson, in Keble, Life, v. (1863), 194. To leave all such carriages, Boones and services on the same foot as already provided for by Law.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Boon, a stated service rendered to the landlord by the tenant.
b. Hence boon-day, -loaf (a loaf allowed to a tenant when working on a boon-day), -man, -work; also c. boon-ploughing, -shearing, a day’s plowing or shearing given gratuitously to a farmer by his neighbors on a special occasion.
1679. Blount, Anc. Tenures, 153. The custom was here for the Natives and Cottagers to plow and harrow for the Lord, and to work one *boon-day for him every week in Harvest.
1788. Marshall, Rur. Econ. Yorksh. (1796), I. 41. Tenant agrees … to perform the customary leadings, or boondays.
1863. Atkinson, Provinc. Danby, &c. s.v. Boon-days.
1679. Blount, Anc. Tenures, 143. Every plow was to be allowed four *boon-loaves.
1727. Bp. T. Wilson, in Keble, Life, xx. (1863), 680. The *boon-men i. e. they who owe him rent in the way of work.
1886. Carlisle Jrnl., 23 Feb., 2/4. *Boon Ploughing at Burgh.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), *Boon-shearin (N. Lanc.), a quantity of shearing given as in the case of a boon-ploo [= boon-ploughing].
1883. Seebohm, Eng. Vill. Community, 78. Precariæ or *boon-work, i. e. special work at request.
¶ Occasionally boon appears to have the sense of ‘good,’ but in the earlier instances at least the sense of ‘favor asked’ or ‘conferred,’ is more or less apparent. Modern archaists complete the confusion with BOON a.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1089. Hade bodyly burne abiden þat bone … His lyf wer loste.
c. 1650. Came you not, &c. 12, in Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 254. I haue Land att durham will feitch my hart to boone.
1874. Holland, Mistr. Manse, xxi. 83. The steps were scaled for boon or bale.
1884. Skrine, Und. Two Queens, II. 34. Boon we mingle and bane.
