Bowssen (Old Cornish Word Definition)

Bowssen Definition:

• Transitive verb.
• To drench; to soak; especially, to immerse (in water thought to have curative properties).
• To duck or immerse a mad or insane person in special water, i.e. holy well.

Bowssen in Sentences:

• "There were many bowssening places, for curing of mad men. . . . If there appeared small amendment he was bowssened again and again." - Richard Carew (Survey of Cornwall, London, 1602, 1769).
  
• "... he was bowssened againe, and againe, while there remayned in him any hope of life for recovery." [Book - Ancient and holy wells of Cornwall, 1894]
  
• After the bowssen his madness abated.

Words Rhyming with Bowssen:
Brasen, Delicatessen, Forechosen, greisen, Sarsen.

Bowssen Alternative Usage:

"The word "bowssen," too, is very frequently heard in these parts; it is a provincialism for a stall or shed where oxen are kept. "Boose" is the word from which it originally sprang." [from A COTSWOLD VILLAGE OR COUNTRY LIFE AND PURSUITS IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE by J. Arthur Gibbs, 1918]

Posted by ALCHEssMIST.
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