bowk

English

WOTD – 2 December 2012, 2 December 2014

Alternative forms

• bolk

Etymology

From Middle English bolken, bulken, alteration of earlier balken, from Old English bealcan (“to belch; utter”). Compare Dutch bulken (“to roar”), German bölken. More at bolk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /boʊk/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -oʊk

Verb

bowk (third-person singular simple present bowks, present participle bowking or bowkin, simple past and past participle bowked)

1. (Geordie) To belch, to burp.
   • 1966, William Mayne, Earthfasts, Peter Smith, published 1989, →ISBN, page 37:

     "That made me bowk," he said; and he bowked again. He took another swig with caution, and gave the bottle to David, and they swigged at it in turn.

   • 1997, Brian P. Martin, Tales of the Old Countrywomen‎^[1], David & Charles, →ISBN, page 143:

     If this man did not feed the mill carefully and regularly it bowked with "indigestion" and this slowed everything up.

   • 2008, Sid Waddell, Taak of the Toon: How to Speak Geordie‎^[2], HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 92:

     He claimed that meat or cheese made you 'bowk' (belch) and get stomach cramps — the last thing you need 'yakking' (using a pick) coal for eight tough hours in a two-foot 'cavil' (job area).

2. (UK) To vomit.
   • 2004, Chris Donald, Rude Kids: The Unfeasible Story of Viz‎^[3], HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 275:

     At that point another of my guests, a highly respected Newcastle art gallery owner by the name of Rashida, bowked up all over the floor behind me.

   • 2009, Blythe Gifford, In the Master's Bed‎^[4], Harlequin, →ISBN, page 64:

     'Take yourself to bed then. And don't whine to me tomorrow about how you bowked your guts out all night.'

   • 2010, Mike Harper, Little Mickey H: A Norbury Lad‎^[5], AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 107:

     Firstly, aged perhaps five or six after polishing off a banana and a slice of bread and butter in the back room at tea time, taking my plate out to the kitchen, I managed to make it only as far as the spin dryer in the hall before bowking richly over the lino.

   • 2011, Erica Bell, The Voyage of the Shuckenoor‎^[6], Interactive Publications, →ISBN:

     Misima bowked beside him, bent over double. They made twin streams of yellow bile in the heather.

References

• Frank Graham (1987) The New Geordie Dictionary, →ISBN
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin, [7]
• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977[8]
• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN

Scots

Etymology

From Old Scots bolk (“to belch”). Cognate with Geordie bowk and General Scots boak (but does not have quite the same meaning).

Noun

bowk (uncountable)

1. (South Scots) vomit; sick

Verb

bowk (third-person singular simple present bowks, present participle bowkin, simple past bowkt, past participle bowkt)

1. (South Scots) to vomit; to throw up.