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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BLOSS, n.

1. A term of endearment; a sweetheart.Sc. 1825 Jam.2:
Bloss, a term applied to a buxom young woman.
Lnk. 1792 Airdrie Bards (Knox 1930) 309:
Wa here like queens haud up their head Thinking they're sonsy blosses.
Uls. 1866 H. M'D. Flecher Poems, etc. I. 75:
But don't be frightened, my purty bloss, I hev now a wee fiel' at the edge of the moss.

2. Used in an unfavourable sense.w.Sc. 1825 Jam.2:
Bloss. This word is commonly used in the west of Scot. . . . . as denoting a trull.

[Prob. a shortened form of blossom, extended to mean a sweetheart, etc., and often in a derogatory sense. Bloss is also found in Yks., Lin., used ironically of a woman' and blossom in w.Yks., Chs., Lin., to mean a hussy, a dirty person or thing (E.D.D.). Jam.2 suggests a connection with obs. or dial. Eng. blowze, a trull, a fat wench, used by Shakespeare in Titus Andr. IV. ii. 72: “Sweet blowse, you are a beautious blossome sure.” Farmer and Henley give bloss, “generic for a woman — girl, wife, or mistress.”]

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