Online Encyclopedia
Make a correction
Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.
Back to article:
BULLY (of uncertain origin, but possibly connected with a Teutonic word seen in many compounds, as the Low Ger. bullerjaan, meaning " noisy "; the word has also, with less probability, been derived from the Dutch beel, and Ger. Buhle, a lover)
Your email:
Article name:
Article content:
BULLY (of uncertain origin, but possibly connected with a Teutonic word seen in many compounds, as the Low Ger. bullerjaan, meaning " noisy "; the word has also, with less probability, been derived from the Dutch beel, and Ger. Buhle, a lover), originally a fine, swaggering fellow, as in " Bully Bottom" in A Midsummer Night's Dream, later an overbearing ruffian, especially a coward who abuses his strength by ill-treating the weak; more technically a souteneur, a man who lives on the earnings of a prostitute. The term in its early use of " fine " or "splendid" survives in American slang.