Talk:bom

RFV discussion: September 2014–March 2015

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bom

This was copied straight from the 1913 Webster's, which AFAICT was copied straight from the 1828 Webster's, which probably got it from this 1742 text, but I can't find any indication that there is any New World snake called the "bom", and, well, zoological knowledge has advanced a little bit in the past 272 years. So far, it looks like this word has only been mentioned and not used. If such a critter ever existed, it presumably has some modern name, but if we can't find out which one, we can't even label this an obsolete word for something else. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 22:15, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Webster's Second International c. 1935, shows it in a footnote, saying it is the same as aboma. DCDuring TALK 22:44, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

I found bom and boma in this sense in some Portuguese dictionaries.

“bom”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC. also says it is the same as aboma.DCDuring TALK 23:01, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

"Zoological knowledge has advanced a little bit in the past 272 years." I loled. I am also enjoying the idea of any snake being named after the sound it makes, because then all snakes should be called sssss or hsssss or sssshh or Slytherin. What kind of stupid snake says "bom"? Beautiful ecologist Kirsty told me that she used to hiss at people who bothered her, although I imagined it being more of a catlike hiss. BTW, one thing that Webster 1913 brought to my attention is that there was some point, not too long ago, when everyone stopped saying "serpent" and started saying "snake". Anyway here is a promising search for anyone who is currently more sober and less distracted: [1] Love always Equinox ◑ 23:13, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Dubstep snake, I suppose. Renard Migrant (talk) 23:38, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

I looked through the first ten pages of that search, and all I found was hyphenation artifacts, scannos (mostly for born and boæ), and one mention. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 13:15, 13 September 2014 (UTC)

Could it be somehow a mistake for boa? Boa is the feminine form of the word bom in Portuguese, although the word "boa" for snake apparently goes back to Latin and ins unrelated. Soap (talk) 05:02, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

It is more likely that the English dictionary entries are intended to potentially help someone who might read a rendering of a word heard in Brazil that was or was derived from aboma: *bom, *boma, *bomma. I doubt that any of them are attestable in English. DCDuring TALK 11:02, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

I found and added two book citations, but both are mentions. Inadequate! Equinox ◑ 15:57, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

I agree that "This is called the bom, ..." (now in mainspace) is a mention, not a use. --Dan Polansky (talk) 17:46, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

I managed to find this:

• 2013(?), John McGreal, In The Way of It →ISBN, page 34:

  On a school trip to The Zoo he found winged Zimbs; Apes and Sais; snakes like small Asps, long Boms and Kraits; Bears like Ted big and small; […]

I'd hazard a guess that McGreal just trawled through a dictionary for words to plug into his poem (rather than that he was using a word he was familiar with), but it still looks like a use. (It seems possible to discount the capitalization because it can be shown that he capitalizes nouns generally.) - -sche (discuss) 01:29, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Century says this was also spelt boma and bomma, in addition to the spelling already mentioned above (aboma). I can only find mentions of those terms, and instances where they occur in italics along with other non-English terms, however; I can't find English uses of them in reference to snakes. (This means that the aboma sense of boma may need to be RFVed.) - -sche (discuss) 01:46, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

RFV-failed. - -sche (discuss) 20:37, 4 March 2015 (UTC)