bosom
/ˈbʊz(ə)m/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.05 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any thing or place resembling the breast; a supporting surface; an inner recess; the interior.
noun
A depression round the eye of a millstone.
adj
In a very close relationship.
Example Sentences
- "Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.[…]She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat."
- "Mary felt annoyed at the girl; just because bras had become passé, did a girl with so pronounced a bosom have to cater to fashion? In this case practicality dictated a bra, and Mary stood at the desk feeling herself flushing with disapproval."
- "my poor dear duke[…], in consequence of the excitement created in his august bosom by her frantic violence and grief, had a fit in which I very nigh lost him."
- "His uncle, a Cardinal, engages a Spanish youth of Moorish descent called Diego, an expert singer and player on the virginal,[…]to cleanse his bosom of the perilous stuff, and cure him by the spell of his music."
- "… Mr Toodle … was refreshing himself with tea in the bosom of his family."
- "there might be seen in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom of the hills, certain pallid undersized men, who, by the side of the brawny country-folk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race."
Etymology
From Middle English bosom, bosum, from Old English bōsm, from Proto-West Germanic *bōsm, from Proto-Germanic *bōsmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewH- (“to swell, bend, curve”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Bossem, Bousem (“bosom”), West Frisian boezem (“bosom”), Dutch boezem (“bosom”), German Busen (“bosom”). Related also to Albanian buzë (“lip”), Greek βυζί (vyzí, “breast”), Romanian buză (“lip”), Irish bus (“lip”), and Latin bucca (“cheek”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bʰuH-, bosom, bōsm, *bōsm, *bōsmaz, *bʰewH-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈbʊz(ə)m/
- British English: /ˈbʊz(ə)m/