gowan

plural gowans

1. NorthumbriacountableA common daisy (Bellis perennis).

   We twa hae run about the braes, and pou’d the gowans fine; But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit, sin' auld lang syne.

   1788, Robert Burns, 'Auld Lang Syne'

   2 more examples

   Upjohn wrote this slim volume, which, if you recall, was about preparatory schools, and in it, so Kipper tells me, said that the time spent in these establishments was the happiest of our lives. Ye Ed passed it on to Kipper for comment, and he, remembering the dark days at Malvern House, Bramley-on-Sea, when he and I were plucking the gowans fine there, slated it with no uncertain hand.

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

   / Like dew on the gowan lying / Is the fa' o' her fairy feet; / And like winds in summer sighing, / Her voice is low and sweet— / Her voice is low and sweet, / And she's a' the world to me, / And for bonnie Annie Laurie / I'd lay me doon and dee.

   1852-1859, Lady John Scott, “Annie Laurie”, in Scottish Songs

2. uncountablechemistryDecomposed granite.

plural Gowans

1. A surname from Scottish Gaelic.
2. A locality in the Bathurst council area and the Cabonne council area, central eastern New South Wales, Australia.