The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-04-25
cALLINe THE cow nco.Boss.p

George Hempl president of the American Dialect soc
ety. has run down the national worldwide rather custom
of calling by the Of Coboss He writes to the
New York Evening Post: The call 'Coboss is familiar to
inhabitants northern states and Canada
In fact has something poetic about for many of
reminding Of fields and lanes and and the myser-
ious suggesveness Of the coming night so it is
strange that the boss Americans an
interest which other farm words lack and that people often
inquire its origin It's practical identity form and
meaning with the Latin together with the improbable
y c farm hands dropping into attn dction hailing
dc wrapped the etynoogy Of the word in antizing
mystery have long tried to dspe this cloud and get at
the plain facts Of the origin Of the and
have succeeded it that the general interest in
e expression warrants in publishing its history in
nontechnical journal
Bartlett was probably first to call attention to the
word hoh ne presents the dmnutive form bossy with
reference the Greek 1oschos calf It then entered the
larger dictionaries and is referred Latin bos Web
the Century, and the sooaHed Standard first
CLEAN of the truth is to be found the Century where the
ceaDdic cali referred bas bas an ex-
clamaton used in driving into their stalls bass
stall, boose see boose)'
Ia America the word is rarely heard except in the call
where has acquired almost the character of name
is often written with capital some times COMPOUNDED
with Bess The form Of the call does not vary much being
Come boss bossy Co boss the north and Sock boss
500 boss in the midland In England word seems to
be in calls; the only certain information that
received from Somersetsire where Mr. Sweet
Of WncantOn reports Coop Bossey Chat is up
bossey) as a call to calves Perhaps the call Boosh,
Booshie that Miss Irvine Lerwick reports from the
Shetland Islands used in calling COWS and calves the
Cor the old Morse cali kus kus appears in northern
England with Sd: cush cusha cushy etc the word
in frequent in southern or Saxon England. com
It in the form hos boss bus buss
bossy bossycaf bossaca bosscalf, busscaf and Dusk
with the meanings young calf unweaned calf calf too
long unweaned child long unweaned spoilt child
mDcsop Most of this information is derived from the
invaluable English Dialect Dictionary of Professor Wright
who enormously compares Hessan busseng Low German
botinl young steer which would require the Eng
lsh word.
The diversity of form seen III boss buss busk is i'm
pOrtant be explained only the suppositon that
the forms represent the detached first element Of com
pound IN which old long vowel suffered shortening at
two different periods Of its Development Such compound
is bossoalf bussoa The OF the variant Dusk simply
the detached of CALI At first sight bossycan or bussca
strikes compound Of equivalent words ike
pussycat When we remember however. that the and
OF boss and buss represent long later long which
short before the consonant roup SIX that
first part of the compound is other than the word bose
boosy Middle English hos, bosy, Ola English bos bosig
'cow-stal bosscal or buss-caf is then boosecaIf
that is calf that st allowed TO stay with the
the boose or STAN Exactly the notion is expressed in
dialectie German stallkalb.
The use Of boss buss for boss calf buss calf
parallel to the Of Jersey for Jersey cow pug for pug
dog Shanghai for Shanghai chicken canary Tor canary
bird etc That what originally word for calf has
come 20 designate is to be observed IN many similar
cases The animal Grows up but its owner continues to
cali il by its baby which thus becomes sort Of pet
name, fer which duinntfye Ike Bossy NAV lee formed
Similarly Sock originally form Of suck stiu addressed
in Great Britain ana parts of our own country TO
can TO COWS appearing as sook boss SEQ cow ana in many
variations