Talk:boss

RFV discussion

This entry has survived Wiktionary's verification process.

Please do not re-nominate for verification without comprehensive reasons for doing so.

---

The verb sense - is it ever used without "about"/"around"? The example uses "boss". If it is always "boss about"/"boss around", then this should be stated in the sense, something like this: (followed by "about" or "around"). What then happens to the derived terms is questionable. — Paul G 09:12, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

It does not look to me that it is always with "around" or "about". Verifying this does not address your issue, which seems more of an TR thing.

One sense of "boss" is like "head" or "chair" used as leadership verbs. In that sense it doesn't take "around". A qualifying phrase like "usually with around or about" would probably cover it, but additional senses also seem necessary. There is almost always a case to be made for additional senses for entries, in my limited experience. DCDuring TALK 10:48, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Cited, although I'm not sure the first example isn't part of a set phrase 'boss and spoil' (with perhaps a different meaning than 'lord over'). Rfv-passed? — Beobach972 18:36, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

I just checked COCA for "[boss] * and [spoil]" (any form of "boss" wildcard word "and" any form of "spoil"). No hits in 385MM word corpus. DCDuring TALK 19:30, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

RFV passed. Thanks for the cites, Beobach972, and other research, DCDuring. —Ruakh_TALK 05:27, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Possible missing sense, UK youth slang

The BBC has a kids' Internet safety site which it describes as "a place to help you boss your life online". This suggests a slang sense of boss meaning to manage or be in control of. Equinox ◑ 17:41, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

BBC again today: "Halloween: How to boss it this year despite coronavirus". Equinox ◑ 09:29, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

Etymology

Why "from Proto-Germanic *baswô, masculine form of Proto-Germanic *baswǭ (“father's sister, aunt, cousin”)" rather than "from Proto-Germanic *baswô (“father's brother, uncle, cousin”)? 176.35.165.37 21:01, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

"The representation of Dutch -aa- by English -o- is due to the older unrounded pronunciation of this letter". Is there a source for the claim that the unrounded pronunciation is older? It's just that the Wikipedia page "Phonological_history_of_English" records that c1600-1725 (prior to the British-American split), "/ɔ/ as in lot, top, and fox, is lowered towards /ɒ/." Both those sounds are rounded (and the latter is still used in British English). For the c1725-1945 period, Wikipedia then records "Unrounding of LOT: /ɒ/ as in lot and bother is unrounded in Norwich, the West Country, in Hiberno-English[23] and most of North American English". In other words it is suggesting that the rounded pronunciation is older, the American and Norwich pronunciation newer, contrary to the claim in Wiktionary's etymology for "boss".