Talk:lowboy

Etymology

Surely its from French bois ? Soap (talk) 00:18, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

 Done. Thanks for posting this! — Ungoliant ^(falai) 00:23, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

How do you know? Anyway, presumably same as for tallboy and highboy. If it is from bois, then does sense 2 in this entry need splitting (if actually from boy)? Equinox ◑ 00:25, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

@Equinox Its been seven years but this deserves a reply, so I'll post what I have ....

a humble google books snippet.

This is not the actual book I read, but rather, if I understand right, a book that lists reference books and tells a bit about each of them. That's not going to do us much good as a reference, which is why I've been holding off, but I'm giving up on actually being able to find out what book they're quoting from. It must be older than 1988 and may not have ever been digitized.

However, I think it's plain that lowboy ~ tallboy ~ highboy in the sense of furniture all share the same etymology. If the terms for beer cans and everything else go back further than the terms for furniture, they might be the original words after all .... it may be beyond our reach to find out the truth.

Best regards,

—Soap— 01:36, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Possibly mate but it isn't an hautbois. If you can source this (plausible) ety then I would urge you to do it at all the "-boys" (as listed earlier in this conversation). Equinox ◑ 03:40, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. I agree it's plausible, but also questionable. I've posted a new section at WT:RFE to attract others' attention. —Soap— 14:54, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Here's a convenience link to the ES thread I posted, which also mentions one other word, hautboy, which may have provided a missing link that got us used to seeing -boy rather than -bois in terms for wooden objects. —Soap— 18:17, 21 January 2024 (UTC)