Etymology From Middle English bour, from Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“room, abode”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Búur (“storage room, utility room; cage”), German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr (“cage”) (Danish bur, Norwegian Bokmål bur, Swedish bur).
1
A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.
Give me my lute in bed now as I lie, / And lock the doors of mine unlucky bower.c. 1572, George Gascoigne, A Lady being both wronged by false suspect, and also wounded by the durance of hir husband, doth thus bewray hir grief.:
Rosa refused to return to the lair of the raper, but was induced to give Tudy what his mother described as ‘his last bit of happiness’ in a bower hastily got ready at Montrose, the La Plante mansion on Greenock Heights.1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 373:
2
Literary A dwelling; a picturesque country cottage, especially one that is used as a retreat.
While friends arrived in circles gay, To visit Damon's bower1748, William Shenstone, to William Lyttleton Esq.:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: / Its loveliness increases; it will never / Pass into nothingness; but still will keep / A bower quiet for us, and a sleep / Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.1818, John Keats, “Book I”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–5:
3
A shady, leafy shelter or recess in a garden or woods.
[…]say that thou overheard'st us, And bid her steal into the pleached bower, Where honey-suckles, ripen'd by the sun, Forbid the sun to enter;[…]1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
That night Tarzan built a snug little bower high among the swaying branches of a giant tree, and there the tired girl slept, while in a crotch beneath her the ape-man curled, ready, even in sleep, to protect her.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 214:
2 more examples
The entire town mated together, in the leafy bowers that had sprung up among the washing-machines and television sets in the shopping mall, on the settees and divans by the furniture store, in the tropical paradises of the suburban gardens.1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 30:
The branches met overhead in a kind of bower and the three cops stood in the shade and studied the roughcast gable of the cottage, maybe fifty yards on up the hill.2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 444:
4
Biology, Natural sciences, Ornithology A large structure made of grass, twigs, etc., and decorated with bright objects, used by male bower birds during courtship displays.
Etymology From Middle English bour, from Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“room, abode”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Búur (“storage room, utility room; cage”), German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr (“cage”) (Danish bur, Norwegian Bokmål bur, Swedish bur).
1
To embower; to enclose.
O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell / When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend / In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 3, scene 2, lines 80–82:
[…]belts of thin white mist streaked the brown plough land in the hollow where Appleby could see the pale shine of a winding river. Across that in turn, meadow and coppice rolled away past the white walls of a village bowered in orchards,[…]1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
Flora now calleth forth each flower, And bids make readie Maias bower1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “March. Ægloga Tertia.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:
From Middle English boueer, from Old English būr, ġebūr (“freeholder of the lowest class, peasant, farmer”) and Middle Dutch bouwer (“farmer, builder, peasant”); both from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būraz (“dweller”), from or related to *būaną (“to dwell”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Buur, böre, büür (“farmer”), Alemannic German pour, pur, Puur, pür (“farmer”), Dutch boer, bouwer (“farmer”), buur (“neighbour”), German and Luxembourgish Bauer (“farmer”), Low German Buer, Buur (“farmer”), Mòcheno pauer (“farmer”), Vilamovian pauer, pojer, poüer (“farmer”), Yiddish פּויער (poyer, “farmer”); also Albanian burr, burrë (“man; husband; brave male; lord”). Doublet of bauer, Boer, and boor. More at neighbour.
1
A peasant; a farmer.
bower
noun
Etymology From German Bauer. A doublet of etymology 2 and of the German-origin surname Bauer.
1
Either of the two highest trumps in the card games euchre and five hundred (where the joker is omitted).
Yet the cards they were stocked / In a way that I grieve, / And my feelings were shocked / At the state of Nye's sleeve, / Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, / And the same with intent to deceive.1870, Bret Harte, Plain Language from Truthful James:
The bower aims his display straight at the dominant figure, who may reciprocate with a milder version of the same action.1977, Desmond Morris, Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior, page 144:
2
A muscle that bends a limb, especially the arm.
His rawbone armes, whose mighty brawned bowrs / Were wont to riue steele plates, and helmets hew1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
bower
noun
Etymology From bow (noun) + -er.
1
One who plays any of several bow instruments, such as the musical bow or diddley bow.