Bote

Pronunciation

• IPA: /boÊŠt/

Alternative forms

• bot
• boot

Origin

From Middle English bōte ("advantage, benefit, profit; relief, salvation; atonement, amends, expiation; cure"), from Old English bōt ("help, relief, advantage, remedy; compensation for an injury or wrong; (peace) offering, recompense, amends, atonement, reformation, penance, repentance"), from Proto-Germanic *bōtō ("recompense").

Full definition of bote

Noun

1. The atonement, compensation, amends, satisfaction, expiation; as, manbote, a compensation for a man slain.Iesu ... For synne þat hath my soule bounde, Let þi blessed blood be my bote. — Iesu þat art heuene
2. A payment of any kind
3. A privilege or allowance of necessaries, especially in feudal times.
4. (legal, historical) A right to take wood from property not one's own.
5. repairsÞey shulde..do bote to brugges þat to-broke were. — Pier's Plowman, 1400
6. (obsolete) advantage, benefit, profit, cure, remedyHeo lufeden bi wurten, bi moren, and bi rote; nas þer nan oðer boten. — Layamon's Brut, 1275

Usage notes

Often used to form compounds indicating a right to take wood only for a specific purpose.

Synonyms

• estovers

Derived terms

• burghbote
• cartbote
• firebote
• frithbote
• haybote
• hedgebote
• housebote
• maegbote
• manbote
• plowbote, ploughbote
• theftbote
• wainbote