Why isn't "boor" a verb?

[harry newton]

I wanted to write "She didn't mean to bore/boor/boar me" where I looked up
the spelling for "boring" and found, much to my chagrin, that it's not a
verb. It's only a noun.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boor

So can it be properly written as: "She didn't want to boor me?"

[bil...@shaw.ca]

That makes about as much sense as "She didn't want to boer me".

bill

[purpl...@googlemail.com]

No. Bore and boor are not synonyms and have completely different etymologies.

Bore, in the sense of effecting tedium, is an extension of the usual meaning of the word, to drill or burrow into. Boor, on the other hand, is a rough, ill mannered person and comes from the Dutch 'boer', farmer or peasant.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

No. It should be: "She didn't want to bore me".

"boring" is part of the verb to "bore" in this sense:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bore#bore_Noun_200

bore 2
noun

1 A person whose talk or behaviour is dull and uninteresting.
‘he can be a crashing bore’

verb
[with object]

Cause (someone) to feel weary and uninterested by dull talk or
behaviour.
‘she is too polite to bore us with anecdotes’
with object and complement ‘timid women quickly bore her silly’

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/boring

boring
adjective

Not interesting; tedious.
‘I've got a boring job in an office’

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bored#bored_Adjective_100

bored 1
adjective

Feeling weary and impatient because one is unoccupied or lacks
interest in one's current activity.
‘she got bored with staring out of the window’
‘they hung around all day, bored stiff’
‘bored teenagers’
‘John was soon bored to tears with the work’
‘she's bored out of her mind’

Merriam-Webster has similar definitions (nearly half way down this
page):
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bore

bore
noun
Definition of bore
: one that causes weariness and restlessness through lack of
interest : one that causes boredom: such as
a : a dull or tiresome person

His friends are a bunch of bores.

b : something that is devoid of interest

The lecture was a total bore.



bore
verb

bored; boring

transitive verb
: to cause to feel weariness and restlessness through lack of
interest : to cause to feel boredom

trying not to bore your audience

got bored by the party and left


--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[harry newton]

He who is Peter Duncanson [BrE] said on Sat, 23 Dec 2017 13:32:49 +0000:

> trying not to bore your audience

Peter,
Your response was the most useful because MW didn't seem to explicitly cite
bore as a verb.

I generally resort to MW since I'm in the USA - but your cites are more
general where yours literally show "bore" as a verb.

MW does not (at least not literally).

Thanks - I knew "bore" it had to be a verb - but MW didn't really say that
literally (which it should have, IMHO, since it seems commonly enough used
that way).

So I guess the question is why would MW NOT explicitly list "bore" as a
verb? (It bore as a verb perhaps considered passe' in the US?)

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Saturday, December 23, 2017 at 9:42:15 AM UTC-5, harry newton wrote:
> He who is Peter Duncanson [BrE] said on Sat, 23 Dec 2017 13:32:49 +0000:
>
> > trying not to bore your audience
>
> Peter,
> Your response was the most useful because MW didn't seem to explicitly cite
> bore as a verb.
>
> I generally resort to MW since I'm in the USA - but your cites are more
> general where yours literally show "bore" as a verb.
>
> MW does not (at least not literally).

Of course it does. I don't know what version of "MW" you are looking at, but in the 11th Collegiate,
it's "bore6 vt (1768) to cause to feel boredom"

> Thanks - I knew "bore" it had to be a verb - but MW didn't really say that
> literally (which it should have, IMHO, since it seems commonly enough used
> that way).
>
> So I guess the question is why would MW NOT explicitly list "bore" as a
> verb? (It bore as a verb perhaps considered passe' in the US?)

No, the question is why you didn't read the dictionary properly.

[harry newton]

He who is Peter T. Daniels said on Sat, 23 Dec 2017 06:49:02 -0800 (PST):

> No, the question is why you didn't read the dictionary properly.

Nolo contendere.
I see my mistake.
The spelling threw me off ...

[J. J. Lodder]

As far as the English are concerned
it is more likely the South African Boers,
who treacherously defeated them all the time
by wearing veldt hats and using pom-pom bullets.

Jan

[purpl...@googlemail.com]

As the word was in use long before those events I can sadly not agree .... but I love 'veldt hats'!

[Sam Plusnet]

pom-pom bullets?
Is this the same thing as (BrE) Dumdum bullets?

(Dum Dum - an arsenal near Calcutta.)


--
Sam Plusnet

[Tony Cooper]

I had to look up "pom-pom bullets". A real thing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_1-pounder_pom-pom

Also, I did not know that "dumdum bullets" are a BrE thing. In the
US, a dumdum is a bullet that expands on impact. Often, they are
non-expanding bullets that are altered to be dumdums. They are
illegal by international treaty.



--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

[J. J. Lodder]

Yes, of course. But the original Dutch Boer, like the African one,
is not a peasant.
The 'boer' is the master of a farm.
Rich ones became 'hereboer'. (lit. gentleman farmer)
(Dutch plural is 'Boeren' btw, not Boers)

The English greatly misjudged the Boers.
They took them for just another kind of natives,
just like all other natives, except for happening to be white.
They discovered, much to their chagrin, that those 'Boers'
could bring the latest in military technology to bear, and on them,

Jan

[J. J. Lodder]

You've been whooshed. Think and all that.

But factual: The Boers were the first users in war
of Maxim's 1-pounder 'pom-pom' autocannon. (from the sound it makes)
It fired 37 mm, one pound, explosive shells at about 300 rpm,
with devastating effect.
Quite frightening, even when they didn't actually hit anything.

The English at first rejected autocannons as no good,
but the Boers forced them to change their minds.

Jan

PS In later wars the pom-pom became the standard anti-aircraft gun.

[J. J. Lodder]

By one of the The Hague treaties.
These treaties also forbid explosive bullets
weighing less than one pound.
So the pom-pom, at the lowest allowed weight, is still a heavy weapon
that needs to be transported on a horse drawn carriage or mounting.
The main problem the Boers had with it was resupply of ammo,

Jan

[Sam Plusnet]

Many anti-aircraft guns on naval ships were/are described as pom poms,
but I was thrown by the separate reference to the ammunition.

The (UK) Royal Navy had a large number of 40mm Bofors guns left over
from WWII. I recall seeing one, labelled as having been manufactured in
1944, installed on a vessel built and launched in the 1970s.

--
Sam Plusnet

[Peter Moylan]

On 23/12/17 16:39, harry newton wrote:
> I wanted to write "She didn't mean to bore/boor/boar me" where I
> looked up the spelling for "boring" and found, much to my chagrin,
> that it's not a verb. It's only a noun.

"Boring" is neither a verb nor a noun.

Well, I take that partly back. I can think of a few rare situations
where "boring" can be a noun.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 7:00:13 AM UTC-5, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 23/12/17 16:39, harry newton wrote:
> > I wanted to write "She didn't mean to bore/boor/boar me" where I
> > looked up the spelling for "boring" and found, much to my chagrin,
> > that it's not a verb. It's only a noun.
>
> "Boring" is neither a verb nor a noun.

That depends on just how greatly you want to describe English in terms of Latin
categories.

> Well, I take that partly back. I can think of a few rare situations
> where "boring" can be a noun.

Boring is one of the main techniques used by miners.

Boring is one of the main techniques used by lecturers to put an audience to sleep.

[Bill Day]

Except that 'bore' and 'boor' as nouns refer to two different sorts
of people..... and 'boor' is not used as a verb.

Boor-- "A crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement"
Bore- "A person who evokes boredom"... dull and uninteresting.

I suppose both characteristics may be found in the same individual,
but a person *may* be one OR the other.
--
remove nonsense for reply

[Snidely]

On Tuesday, Peter Moylan pointed out that ...

> On 23/12/17 16:39, harry newton wrote:
>> I wanted to write "She didn't mean to bore/boor/boar me" where I
>> looked up the spelling for "boring" and found, much to my chagrin,
>> that it's not a verb. It's only a noun.
>
> "Boring" is neither a verb nor a noun.
>
> Well, I take that partly back. I can think of a few rare situations
> where "boring" can be a noun.

Mine,too.

/dps

--
"This is all very fine, but let us not be carried away be excitement,
but ask calmly, how does this person feel about in in his cooler
moments next day, with six or seven thousand feet of snow and stuff on
top of him?"
_Roughing It_, Mark Twain.

[Snidely]

Peter T. Daniels pounded on thar keyboard to tell us

That's the "how-to", not the "whats-it".

/dps


--
"That's a good sort of hectic, innit?"

" Very much so, and I'd recommend the haggis wontons."
-njm

[Snidely]

on 12/26/2017, Snidely supposed :

> Peter T. Daniels pounded on thar keyboard to tell us
>> On Tuesday, December 26, 2017 at 7:00:13 AM UTC-5, Peter Moylan wrote:
>>> On 23/12/17 16:39, harry newton wrote:
>>>> I wanted to write "She didn't mean to bore/boor/boar me" where I
>>>> looked up the spelling for "boring" and found, much to my chagrin,
>>>> that it's not a verb. It's only a noun.
>>>
>>> "Boring" is neither a verb nor a noun.
>>
>> That depends on just how greatly you want to describe English in terms of
>> Latin categories.
>>
>>> Well, I take that partly back. I can think of a few rare situations
>>> where "boring" can be a noun.
>>
>> Boring is one of the main techniques used by miners.
>>
>> Boring is one of the main techniques used by lecturers to put an audience
>> to sleep.
>
> That's the "how-to", not the "whats-it".

But watch your step as you enter the boring.

> /dps

--
But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason
to 'be happy.'"
Viktor Frankl

[J. J. Lodder]

Given that it's from 1066 and all that
the confusion is no doubt deliberate.

> The (UK) Royal Navy had a large number of 40mm Bofors guns left over
> from WWII. I recall seeing one, labelled as having been manufactured in
> 1944, installed on a vessel built and launched in the 1970s.

Guns, especially big ones, last forever.
I saw a listing once of what the Germans had installed
in the Atlantik Wall bunkers:
confiscated big guns from all over Europe, many from WW I
all different sizes of munitions, munitions stolen with the guns.
They couldn't be resupplied at all.
In some cases in Normandy the guns were there,
but they couldn't fire a shot
because their munitions hadn't arrived yet.

Jan

[Janet]

In article <p1lq02$tfh$1...@gioia.aioe.org>, ha...@is.invalid says...

>
> He who is Peter Duncanson [BrE] said on Sat, 23 Dec 2017 13:32:49 +0000:
>
> > trying not to bore your audience
>
> Peter,
> Your response was the most useful because MW didn't seem to explicitly cite
> bore as a verb.
>
> I generally resort to MW since I'm in the USA - but your cites are more
> general where yours literally show "bore" as a verb.
>
> MW does not (at least not literally).

Yes, it does.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bore

> So I guess the question is why would MW NOT explicitly list "bore" as
a
> verb?

It does. See above.

Janet.

[Janet]

In article <1nhi3f7.kd...@de-ster.xs4all.nl>, nospam@de-
ster.demon.nl says...

If only they had worn pom-pom hats and use felt bullets.

Janet.