buoy
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɔɪ/
ipa: /ˈbu.i/
ipa: /ˈbɔɪ/
ipa: /ˈbwɔɪ/
rhymes: -ɔɪ
rhymes: -uːi
homophone: boy
Forms: form: buoys
form: buoying
form: buoyed
form: buoyed
Etymology: From Middle English boy, boye, from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), from Old French boue (“piece of wood or cork that floats above an anchor to indicate where it is anchored”) (modern French bouée), ultimately from Frankish *baukn (“beacon”). Doublet of beacon. Same root as English bon in bonfire.
Alternatively, and perhaps less likely (due to the unexplained shift in meaning), from Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”), from Latin boia (“a (leather) collar, band, fetter”), from Ancient Greek βόεος (bóeos), βόειος (bóeios, “of ox-hide”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Sense 2 was coined by American linguist Scott K. Lindell in 2003.
Senses: glosses: To keep afloat or aloft; used with up.
examples: text: “My Heart Will Go On” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Feb. 28, 1998, buoying the Titanic soundtrack’s 16-week run atop the Billboard 200.
ref: 2017 May 18, Mickey Rapkin, “The Oral History of Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’: Controversies, Doubts & ‘Belly Pains’ In the Studio”, in Billboard:
glosses: To support or maintain at a high level.
examples: text: to buoy an anchor; to buoy or buoy off a channel
text: Not one rock near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by this floating weed.
ref: 1839, Robert FitzRoy, Phillip Parker King, Charles Darwin, chapter XIII, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 303:
glosses: To mark with a buoy.
examples: text: Buoyed by the huge success, they announced two other projects.
text: This dynamic stage of the ongoing struggle for long-denied democratic rights and national liberation helped inspire and buoy many in the U.S. and around the world who longed for social and economic justice.
ref: 2006 February 12, Leslie Feinberg, “Black movement raised hopes of all downtrodden”, in Workers World:
text: It ended up being a bittersweet night for England, full of goals to send the crowd home happy, buoyed by the news that Montenegro and Poland had drawn elsewhere in Group H but also with a measure of regret about what happened to Danny Welbeck and what it means for Roy Hodgson's team going into a much more difficult assignment against Ukraine.
ref: 2013 September 6, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian:
text: Considering the results of the study, today John may be buoyed at the clear trend of increasing numbers of new “lishes” for each successive decade since the 1950s, and the fact that nothing in the data suggests this trend is likely to falter.
ref: 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 18:
glosses: To maintain or enhance enthusiasm or confidence; to lift the spirits of.
Derived terms: buoy up
bell buoy
breeches buoy
can buoy
conical buoy
life buoy
ring buoy