boorn.

Etymology: < (i) Dutch boer farmer, husbandman, peasant (early 16th cent.; in Middle Dutch in compound torfboer peat seller), also used pejoratively, with an implication of ignorance or lack of refinement (early 17th cent. or earlier), churl, lout, country bumpkin (early 18th cent.), originally a regional variant (now distinguished in meaning in standard Dutch) of buur neighbour, inhabitant, country person (Middle Dutch būre , buur ), apparently shortened < Middle Dutch, Dutch gebuur neighbour, inhabitant, cognate with Old English gebūr (compare gebur n.), Old Saxon gibūr (Middle Low German gebūr ), Old High German gibūr , gibūro (Middle High German gebūr , gebūre , early modern German gebaur ), all in a range of senses ‘neighbour, inhabitant, farmer’ < the West Germanic base of y- prefix + the West Germanic base of bower n.¹ (probably originally in the sense ‘someone who lives in the same house or homestead’; compare geneat n.). In early use probably also partly (ii) < Middle Low German būr, German regional (Low German) bur , and in the α. forms perhaps further influenced by early modern German baur (see note). Compare later Boer n.For a similar loss of the prefix in other Germanic languages, compare Old English būr (in late sources), Old Frisian būr , Middle Low German būr (German regional (Low German) bur ), Middle High German būr , būre (early modern German baur ), all in the same range of senses as the prefixed forms (in early modern German also ‘oaf, lout’ (15th cent.)). Compare also neighbour n. Some of these were subsequently associated with and superseded by Dutch bouwer (1586), Middle Low German būwer , Old High German būāri , būwāri (Middle High German būwære , German Bauer ; compare bauer n.), all in a range of senses ‘farmer, cultivator, ploughman, builder’, derivatives (compare -er suffix¹) respectively < Dutch bouwen (Old Dutch buuuan , Middle Dutch bouwen ), Middle Low German būwen , bouwen (Old Saxon būan ), Old High German būan , būwan (Middle High German buwen , German bauen ), cognate with Old English būan , Old Frisian būwa , bōwa (West Frisian bouwe ), Old Icelandic búa , Old Swedish bōa (Swedish bo ), Old Danish, Danish bo , and (with different ablaut grade) Gothic bauan , all in a range of senses ‘to inhabit, to cultivate, to build’, ultimately < the same Indo-European base as be v. (compare big v.¹ and bond n.²). In γ. forms (in boor's mustard n. at Compounds) perhaps showing folk-etymological alteration after bower n.² and bowyer n. With sense 3 compare slightly earlier quot. 1594 at boorish adj.