buoy
pronunciation
How to pronounce buoy in British English:
UK [bɔɪ]
How to pronounce buoy in American English:
US [ˈbui, bɔɪ]
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- Noun:
- bright-colored; a float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater hazards
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- Verb:
- float on the surface of water
- keep afloat
- mark with a buoy
Word Origin
- buoy
- buoy: [13] Buoy is of disputed origin, as to both its immediate source and its ultimate derivation. One school of thought holds that English borrowed it directly from Old French boie ‘chain’, while another views Middle Dutch boeye as an intermediate stage. Again some etymologists maintain that its beginnings were amongst the Germanic languages, and have connected it with English beacon, while others would trace it via Latin boia ‘strap’ to Greek boeiai ‘ox-leather straps’, a derivative of bous ‘ox’ (which is related to English cow).The meaning of Old French boie favours the latter explanation, the semantic link being that buoys are held in place by chains. Buoyant [16] comes from Spanish boyante, the present participle of boyar ‘float’, which was derived from boya ‘buoy’, a borrowing from Old French boie.
- buoy (n.)
- late 13c., perhaps from either Old French buie or Middle Dutch boeye, both from West Germanic *baukna "beacon, signal" (see beacon). OED, however, supports Middle Dutch boeie, or Old French boie "fetter, chain" (see boy), "because of its being fettered to a spot."
- buoy (v.)
- late 16c., "to mark with a buoy," from buoy (n.). Meaning "rise up, lift, sustain" is from c. 1600, perhaps influenced by Spanish boyar "to float," ultimately from the same source. In the figurative sense (of hopes, spirits, etc.) it is recorded from 1640s. Related: Buoyed; buoying.
Example
- 1. This humpback whale ( megaptera novaeangliae ) has become entangled in a craypot and buoy in new zealand .
- 2. But , overall , the emerging world will be less of a buoy to global growth than it has been hitherto .
- 3. Frantic efforts by governments to save their financial systems and buoy their economies will do long-term damage to public finances .
- 4. It was a time frame that some of laidre 's colleagues in seattle , many of them climate scientists who prefer to study the arctic via buoy and robotic plane , considered vaguely insane .
- 5. The radiation sensor on the buoy closest to the craft detects a spike , indicating that the boat could be carrying a dirty bomb .