Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Pourbossa. A ‘word’ in a sailors' shanty sung while weighing anchor. The meaning of the whole is uncertain. For some discussion see the annotated edition of the passage by Alan Moore in Naval Miscellany II, Navy Records Soc. 40, 1910 (1912), pp. 67–84, where it is conjectured that pourbossa means ‘vast heaving’. With the second element -bossa, which appar. occurs again in Sarrabossa, the editor compares ‘F. bosses du bossoir: the anchor stoppers at the cat-head. Bosser le cable: to stopper the cable. – Falconer Dictionary of the Marine, 1769. Bosse! an order to the sailors who are hauling upon any rope to stopper or belay it. – Lescallier Vocab. Bossa means a stopper according to M. Jal (Jal Gloss. Naut.)'. — 1549 Compl. 40/19.
Veyra veyra … gentil galla[n]dis … veynde I see hym … pourbossa pourbossa hail al ande ane