NODE / 0872attestedMiddle English
boi
TRANSLITERATION boi
male servant; churl; young male
- DATE
- Middle English
- SENSE
- male servant churl young male
- FAMILY
- Indo-European / West Germanic
- CANONICAL KEY
- node:2:boi:attested:sense:male-servant-churl-young-male
The recorded Middle English form has an origin that major references still label uncertain.
01ANCESTRAL EDGES
ROOT OF THIS ROOT
GO DEEPERcompeting borrowingproposed
Old French · Old French · fettered personembuié
person in fetters
- SOUND
- Middle English boi has been compared with Old French embuié, a person in fetters.
- MEANING
- The servant or churl field is proposed to connect with a restrained person.
- SCHOLAR
- American Heritage Dictionary Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- proposed — Oxford labels the origin unknown, and American Heritage introduces this path only as possible.
02DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES
THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP
03TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE
EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE
This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.
- UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES
- 1
- REVIEWED EDGES
- 1
- DEEPEST PATH
- 1
- MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED
- 1
HISTORICAL STEP 011 EDGE
STEP 01continuationestablished
- SOUND
- Middle English boi develops into modern boy with stabilized spelling.
- MEANING
- Male servant, churl, and young-male senses settle around the modern male-child center.
Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors2 CITATIONSEDGE 871 ↗ “Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.
04RECORDED EVIDENCE
ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE
NO RECORDED WITNESS ATTACHED.The reviewed graph does not yet attach a source-reported or directly inspected witness to this canonical form.
05EDITORIAL REUSE
WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE