bawbee

English

Etymology

From Scots bawbee.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɔːˈbiː/

Noun

bawbee (plural bawbees)

1. (Scotland, historical) A coin originally worth six pennies Scots, and later three; held equivalent to an English halfpenny.
2. (figuratively) A copper; a small amount of money.
   • 2007 July 12, Simon Hoggart, The Guardian:

     He said there were already plans for a tramline, and a museum of the theatre. Folk should not, he implied, waste their bawbees on the devil's spinning wheel.

Scots

Etymology

Probably shortened from Sillebawbe, the territory of which Alexander Orrok, Scottish master of the mint in the 16th century, was laird.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɑːˈbiː/

Noun

bawbee (plural bawbees)

1. (historical) bawbee, halfpenny
   • 1823, Walter Scott, St. Ronan's Well:

     ‘And muckle they hae made o't—the bankrupt body, Sandie Lawson, hasna paid them a bawbee of four terms' rent.’

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. money
3. dowry
   • 1803, Alexander Boswell, Jenny's Bawbee:

     A' clatty, squinting through a glass, / He girn'd, ‘I'faith a bonnie lass!’ / He thought to win, wi' front o' brass, / Jenny's bawbee.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)