English

Alternative forms

• bobaunce (obsolete)

Noun

bobance

1. (archaic) Boasting.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XV:

     Than thou behelde the synners and the good men; and whan thou saw the synners overcom, thou enclyned to that party for bobbaunce and pryde of the worlde [...].

   • 1808, James G. Savage, The Librarian:

     ye recke not for honesty, no nor for your own law, nor for deeds of mercy and charity, but in folly, and in Bobance

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, ISBN 0554332973, page 68:

     "We've had enough bobance and boasting" said Hordle John, rising and throwing off his doublet.

   • 2002, Gail Ashton, The generation of identity in late medieval hagiography: speaking the saint, ISBN 0415182107, page 44:

     she distributed her own clothing amongst the poor, thus demonstrating that the pomp and bobance of the world should be eschewed, and she conformed her unto the Virgin Mary'

Middle English

Etymology

Old French bobance.

Noun

bobance

1. boasting
   • Late 14th century: For certeinly – I sey for no bobance –/ Yet was I nevere wiþouten purveiance / Of mariage, n’of oþere þynges eek. — Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Tale

Old French

Noun

bobance f ‎(oblique plural bobances, nominative singular bobance, nominative plural bobances)

1. bobance (arrogance; excessive pride)

Descendants

• English: bobance (borrowed)

References

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (bobance)