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Bole

//bol// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A Chadic language native to Nigeria.
  2. 2
    A county-level city of Bortala prefecture, Xinjiang autonomous region, China.

    "As September gets under way, the fields and open country of southern Xinjiang, stretching from Turpan through Korla, Aksu and Kashi to Hotan, as well as the northern country areas from Manas and Shihu westwards across to Bole (Bortala), are all abloom with silvery, snow-white blossoms."

  3. 3
    A town in Ghana.
  4. 4
    A village and civil parish of Nottinghamshire, England.
  5. 5
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    The trunk or stem of a tree.

    "Enormous elm-tree boles did stoop and lean / Upon the dusky brushwood underneath / Their broad curved branches, fledged with clearest green, / New from its silken sheath."

  2. 2
    Any of several varieties of friable earthy clay, usually coloured red by iron oxide, and composed essentially of hydrous silicates of alumina, or more rarely of magnesia. countable, uncountable

    "Good Iznik has strong colours well-contained within their outlines and a very clean, clear white. The red colour, made with Armenian bole (an earthy clay) should be thick and proud of the surface."

  3. 3
    Alternative form of boll (old unit of measure). alt-of, alternative

    "Take then good Barley newly thrashed and well purged from the Chaff, and put thereof eight Boles, that is about ſix English Quarters, in a Stone - trough"

  4. 4
    An aperture with a shutter in the wall of a house, to admit air or light. Scotland

    ""Open the bole," said the old woman firmly and hastily to her daughter-in-law, “open the bole wi' speed, that I may see if this be the right Lord Geraldin[…]."

  5. 5
    a Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and closely related to Hausa, with dialects including Bara and Fika wordnet
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    The shade of reddish brown which resembles this clay. countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    A small closet. Scotland
  3. 8
    the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber wordnet
  4. 9
    A bolus; a dose. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "[…]or else[…]the churches were very incurious to swallow such a bole, if no pretension could have been reasonably made for their justification."

  5. 10
    a soft oily clay used as a pigment (especially a reddish brown pigment) wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English bole, from Old Norse bolr, akin to Danish bul and German Bohle (“plank”). See also bulwark (“defensive wall”).

Etymology 2

From Ancient Greek βῶλος (bôlos, “clod or lump of earth”): compare French bol. Doublet of bolus.

Etymology 3

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 博樂 /博乐 (Bólè).

Etymology 4

Uncertain. Theories include derivation from Akan bɔro (bōro, “sweet”), Nuer bɛɛl (bōl, “grape”), and Gonja bɔl (bōl, “submission”).

Etymology 5

From earlier Bolle, ultimately from either the dative singular bolde or dative plural boldum of bold (“house”); the latter is perhaps suggested by its attestation in the Domesday Book as Medieval Latin Bolun.

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