gowan

See also: Gowan

English

Etymology

From Scots, from Scottish Gaelic [Term?].

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA or enPR then please add some!

This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

• Rhymes: -əʊən

Noun

gowan (plural gowans)

1. (Northumbria) A common daisy (Bellis perennis).
   • 1788, Robert Burns, 'Auld Lang Syne':

     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.

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

     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.

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

     / 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.

2. (mineralogy) Decomposed granite.

Derived terms

• gowaned
• gowany

References

• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4
• Michael Quinion, World Wide Words, "Pluck the gowans fine"

Anagrams

• wagon, Wagon, Wogan, wango, wonga

Scots

Etymology

From the original form gollan, meaning the marsh marigold.

Noun

gowan (plural gowans)

1. A common daisy (Bellis perennis).
   • 1788, Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne:

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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)