Other forms: boons
A boon is something that is a real help when it comes. A great boon, a boon to travellers, prove a boon.
It is slightly old-fashioned and always positive, usually in a boon to somebody. The original meaning was a favour asked for, which survives in the archaic ask a boon. A boon companion is a good friend, and that boon is a different word.
1nounboonSomething that is a real help when it comes.
“The new bus route has been a real boon for elderly people in the village.”
boon is a benefit.
Old Norse bon meant a prayer or petition. The sense shifted from the request to the thing granted.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰeh₂-
Proto-Germanic
*bōniz — supplication
Old Norse
bón — prayer, petition
Middle English
boon — prayer
English, today
boon
Built from
From Middle English boon (“prayer”), from Old Norse bón (“prayer, petition”), from Proto-Germanic bōniz (“supplication”), influenced by boon (“good, favorable”). a doublet of ben; see there for more.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA