Word of the Day

: March 25, 2019

bower

noun BOW-er

What It Means

1 : an attractive dwelling or retreat

2 : a lady's private apartment in a medieval hall or castle

3 : a shelter (as in a garden) made with tree boughs or vines twined together : arbor

bower in Context

The couple's rendezvous was a secluded bower in the garden.

"In retelling Shakespeare's story of mortal and immortal lovers lost in a bewitched Athenian wood, Ms. Taymor has sought to conjure the sort of Jungian visions that are bred in the fertile fields of sleep. … [S]he transforms bed and bedding into a sylvan, starry wonderland. An immense sheet rises, falls and twists itself to become a confining roof, a vast sky, a writhing forest floor and an amorous bower fit for a queen of the fairies." — Ben Brantley, The New York Times, 4 Nov. 2013

Did You Know?

Bower derives from Old English būr, meaning "dwelling,"and was originally used of attractive homes or retreats, especially rustic cottages. In the Middle Ages, bower came to refer to a lady's personal hideaway within a medieval castle or hall—that is, her private apartment. The more familiar "arbor" sense combines the pastoral beauty of a rustic retreat with the privacy of a personal apartment. Although its tranquil modern meaning belies it, bower is distantly related to the far more roughshod bowery, which has historically been used as the name of a sleazy district in New York City. The Bowery got its name from a Dutch term for a dwelling or farm that shares a common ancestor with the terms that gave rise to "bower."