bouse的意思|示意

Bouse (also spelled booce, boose, and bouse) is a Middle English word meaning “praise” or “approbation,” typically in the form of physical expressions such as clapping and cheering. It was used as a term of encouragement to participants in activities such as jousts.

Bouse appears occasionally in literature, often with the same literal meaning of physical expressions of praise. In The Canterbury Tales, for instance, a character tells a story of a man whose jousting skills brought him bouse from the audience.

Bouse can also be used figuratively to mean “praise” or “approbation,” typically spoken rather than physical. In Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a character says that “no bouse could be too great” for Tess’s beauty. Here, bouse is used to mean a kind of verbal praise.

In modern English, bouse is most commonly used only in the phrase “the bouse and brag,” meaning “the bragging or boasting of one’s accomplishments,” with bouse being the praise and brag the boasting. It’s also sometimes used in the phrase “bouse and bluster,” which means “to express oneself loudly and boastfully.”

In the past, bouse was sometimes used to mean “drunkenness” or “the state of being drunk,” though this sense of the word is now largely obsolete. This meaning likely derived from the idea that when one is drunk, they may be less inhibited and more likely to express praise and approbation.

All in all, bouse is an archaic term meaning “praise” or “approbation,” typically spoken rather than physical, though it was once sometimes used to mean “drunkenness.” Today, it is mainly used in the phrases “the bouse and brag” and “bouse and bluster.”