Meanings
- A Scottish habitational surname from Old French of Norman origin from Beuzeville in France.
- James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson.
- A place name:
- A hamlet in Elkington parish, East Lindsey district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF2790).
- A town in Grant Township, Benton County, Indiana, United States.
- A town in Choctaw County, Oklahoma, United States.
- A community on Kootenay Lake in the Kootenays, south-east British Columbia, Canada.
- A former cannery town on the Central Coast of British Columbia.
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*bausuz
- Old NorseBosi
- EnglishBoswell
Scottish surname, from Norman, named after Beuzeville, from Beuze + -ville ("Bosi's farm"); first element from Old Norse Bosi, from Proto-Germanic *bausuz.
More words from Old Norse, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Boswell. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Boswell
“Boswell.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Boswell. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Boswell,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Boswell.
Source: Boswell on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.