boughとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Middle English bough, bowe, bogh, boȝe, boȝ, from 古期英語 bōh, bōg (“arm; shoulder; bough”), from Proto-Germanic *bōguz (“upper arm; shoulder”) (compare German Bug (“shoulder, hock, joint”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵʰús (“forearm, elbow”) (compare Ancient Greek πῆχυς (pêkhus, “forearm”), Old Armenian բազուկ (bazuk, “arm, forearm, bough”), Persian بازو‎ (bāzu, “upper arm”), Sanskrit बाहु (bāhú, “arm”)).

発音

• IPA^(key): /baʊ/
• (Nigeria, Northern 米国発音, Southern American English) IPA^(key): /bə/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /bʌʊ/
• Homophone: bow
• 韻: -aʊ

名詞

bough (複数形 boughs)

1. A firm branch of a tree.

   When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Deuteronomy 24:20:

     When thou beatest thine oliue tree thou shalt not goe ouer the boughes againe: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherlesse, and for the widow.

   • 1819 May, John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: Printed [by Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, OCLC 927360557, stanza 3, page 114:

     Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; [...]

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:

     Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us.

   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company, chapter 18. p. 172:

     A pair of birds settle on the bough above them, murmuring together, ready to roost.

2. (obsolete, poetic) The gallows.

派生語

• cut not the bough that you are standing upon

Further reading

• “bough” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2020.