Boswell

B3O1S1W4E1L1L1
UK/ˈbɒzˌwɛl/UK/ˈbɒz.wəl/US/ˈbɑzˌwɛl/US/ˈbɑz.wəl/

proper noun

A Scottish habitational surname from Old French of Norman origin from Beuzeville in France.

Less commonScrabble 12

Meanings

proper noun
  1. A Scottish habitational surname from Old French of Norman origin from Beuzeville in France.
    1. James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson.
  2. A place name:
    1. A hamlet in Elkington parish, East Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF2790).
    2. A community on Kootenay Lake in the Kootenays, south-east British Columbia, Canada.
    3. A former cannery town on the Central Coast of British Columbia.
nounBoswell (plural Boswells)

plural Boswells

  1. A devoted admirer and recorder of a person's words and deeds.

    "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity to miss it."

    1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'

Origin

  1. Proto-Germanic*bausuz
  2. Old NorseBosi
  3. EnglishBoswell

Scottish surname, from Norman, named after Beuzeville, from Beuze + -ville ("Bosi's farm"); first element from Old Norse Bosi, from Proto-Germanic *bausuz.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

Boswell. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Boswell

MLA

“Boswell.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Boswell. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Boswell,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Boswell.

Source: Boswell on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.