boor

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /bʊr/ UK /bʊə/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like bull /l/ vs /r/

Meanings

1

noun
a rude, ill-mannered, or insensitive person

What a boor, leaving without thanking the host.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a rude, ill-mannered, or... loutoafchurl yokel philistine clod brute

Opposites

gentleman sophisticate

Word family

Derived forms boorish boorishness

Simplified etymology

Boor was readopted in the mid-16th century from related Dutch and German words meaning “peasant” or “rustic.” It is historically connected with Old English gebūr, a peasant or tenant farmer, but that English word disappeared after the Norman Conquest; the modern sense “rough, ill-mannered person” developed from the social meaning.

Etymology

From Dutch boer or Low German bur ('farmer, peasant'), from Proto-Germanic *būraz ('dweller'), related to Old English gebūr ('dweller, farmer'). The sense 'rude person' arose from peasant connotations.

boer Dutch *būraz Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# boor

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /bʊr/
**IPA (UK):** /bʊə/

## Meanings
1. a rude, ill-mannered, or insensitive person

## Examples
- What a boor, leaving without thanking the host.

## Synonyms
- lout
- oaf
- churl
- yokel
- philistine
- clod
- brute

## Antonyms
- gentleman
- sophisticate

## Derived Forms
- boorish
- boorishness

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: boer
- Root: *būraz

## Etymology
From Dutch boer or Low German bur ('farmer, peasant'), from Proto-Germanic *būraz ('dweller'), related to Old English gebūr ('dweller, farmer'). The sense 'rude person' arose from peasant connotations.

## AI Etymology
Boor comes from Dutch boer or Low German bur ('farmer, peasant'), from Proto-Germanic *būraz ('dweller'), related to Old English gebūr ('dweller, farmer'). The sense 'rude person' arose from peasant connotations. The historical trail runs through boer in Dutch and *būraz in Proto-Germanic. Used as a noun, boor now means "a rude, ill-mannered, or insensitive person", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as boorish and boorishness. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.

## Topics
- People & Society

markdown