Meanings
plural bullaces
- A small European plum (Prunus interstitia, syn. Prunus domestica subsp. insititia).
If he ate bullace tart and bullace pie for a week, he would hardly empty the smallest of the baskets; and then they would begin to go bad. Nothing remained but to give them away, but to whom?
1930, Harold Webber Freeman, Down in the Valley, page 48Synonyms: damson, bullace plum
- The bully tree.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA small European plum (Prunus interstitia, syn. Prunus domestica subsp. insititia).
More synonyms by meaning
nounsmall wild or half-domesticated Eurasian plum bearing small ovoid fruit in clusters
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰeHw-“to swell, puff”
- Proto-Celtic*bullākā
- Celtiberian*bullācā
- Late Latinbulluca“kind of small fruit”
- Vulgar Latin*bullucea
- Old Frenchbeloce
- Middle Englishbolas
- Englishbullace
From Middle English bolas, bolace, from Anglo-Norman and Old French beloce, buloce (“sloe”), from Vulgar Latin *bullucea, from Late Latin bulluca (“kind of small fruit”); of Celtic/Gaulish origin, akin to Celtiberian *bullācā, from Proto-Celtic *bullākā, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeHw- (“to swell, puff”), itself imitative. Possibly influenced by Latin galla (“oak apple”) with metathesis of the consonants. See also Spanish bugalla (“oak apple”), Portuguese bugalho, and (the distantly related) Latin bucca.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Vulgar Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
bullace. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bullace
“bullace.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bullace. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bullace,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bullace.
Source: bullace on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.