Word
boko
Definitions
01the nose
n. an old-fashioned slang word for the nose.
n. a dated or dialectal term for the human nose.
“He took a nasty fall and landed right on his boko.”
“The old boxer boasted about his many victories, though his flattened boko told a story of many heavy hits taken in the ring.”
Archaic · Dialect
Usage
Primarily found in older Australian or West Midlands English dialects.
02Hausa script
n. the name for the Latin alphabet when it is used to write the Hausa language.
n. the Latin-based orthography used for the Hausa language, as opposed to the Arabic-based Ajami script.
“The student learned to read Hausa using the boko script.”
“The transition from Ajami to boko script in the early twentieth century significantly altered the landscape of Hausa literary production.”
Technical
Usage
Usually written with a lowercase 'b' when referring to the script itself.
Synonyms
03the Boko people or language
n. a group of people living in Benin and Nigeria, or the language they speak.
n. an ethnic group residing in Benin and Nigeria, or the Mande language spoken by this population.
“The researcher traveled to West Africa to study the Boko language.”
“Linguistic surveys of the region have documented several distinct dialects within the Boko speaking communities along the border.”
Formal
Usage
Capitalized when referring to the specific ethnic group or their language.
Etymology
Circa 1820. Multiple potential origins: * From beak (“nose”) * From French beaucoup (“very much”) * Blend of beak (“nose”) + coconut * From boke (“point; thrust”) * From poke, as in poke one's nose into
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/boko