boa

Abbreviation of English Bora.

boa

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Bora.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Bora terms

From Middle English boa, from Latin boa (“large snake”), a species of serpent mentioned in Pliny's Naturalis Historia (Natural History). The scarf was named attributively, for its resemblance to the snake when worn.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbəʊ.ə/, (obsolete) /bɔː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈboʊ.ə/
• Rhymes: -əʊə

boa (plural boas or (obsolete) boæ)

1. Any of a group of large American snakes, of the genus Boa, subfamily Boinae, or family Boidae, including the boa constrictor and the emperor boa of Mexico.
2. A type of long scarf; typically made from synthetic or real feathers (or occasionally fur), and usually worn by being draped across the shoulders with the ends hanging low, sometimes also with a loop around the neck.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 220:

     Do not take up your boa as if it were the rope with which you meant to hang yourself; nor wrap your shawl round you as if it were your shroud.

• Boidae on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Boa on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

• Åbo, bao, AOB, oba, Abo, ABO, BAO, a.o.b., Oba., OAB, Bao, abo, OBA, A/B/O

• bo f — archaic

Internationalism, compare French boa, Italian boa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈboa/
• Rhymes: -oa

boa f (plural boa, definite boa, definite plural boat)

1. boa (Boa)

   boa mbytëse, boa shtrënguese ― Boa constrictor

   boa e gomës ― Charina bottae

   boa e rërës ― Eryx conicus, E. johnii

• FGJSSH (1980), page 159b: “bóa”
• Mann (1948), page 33a: “boa, ja”
• Lloshi (2010), page 39b: “boa”

Borrowed from Latin boa (“large snake”). Doublet of boà.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈbɔ.ə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈbo.a]

boa f (plural boes)

1. boa (snake)
2. scaly dragonfish (Stomias boa boa)

   Synonym: boa marina

• boa constrictora

• “boa”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “boa”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “boa” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “boa” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Latin boa (“large snake”).

boa c (singular definite boaen, plural indefinite boaer)

1. boa (snake)
2. boa (item of clothing)

• boaslange

• boaslange
• fjerboa
• kongeboa

• “boa” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Middle Dutch boa, from Latin boa. The use for scarf is a semantic loan from French boa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈboː.aː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: boa
• Rhymes: -oːaː

boa m (plural boa's, diminutive boaatje n)

1. boa (snake of the genus Boa)
2. fur or plumed scarf, boa

• → Indonesian: boa

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “boa”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

• boa on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl

From bo- +‎ -a.

• IPA^(key): /ˈboa/
• Rhymes: -oa
• Syllabification: bo‧a

boa (accusative singular boan, plural boaj, accusative plural boajn)

1. Related by marriage (rarely used; bo- is usually a prefix).

• IPA^(key): /ˈboa/
• Rhymes: -oa
• Syllabification: bo‧a

From Old Galician-Portuguese voda (“wedding”), from Latin vōta (“vows”).

• boda (Lagarteiru, Valverdeñu)

boa f (plural boas)

1. (Mañegu) wedding

Borrowed from Spanish boa, from Latin boa.

boa f (plural boas)

1. boa

boa

1. feminine singular of bo (“good”)

• Valeš, Miroslav (2021), Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu (web)‎^[2], 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN, page 67

From Latin boa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbo.ɑ/, [ˈbo̞.ɑ̝]
• IPA^(key): /ˈboː.ɑ/, [ˈbo̞ː.ɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -o.ɑ
• Syllabification^(key): bo‧a
• Hyphenation^(key): boa

boa

1. boa (snake)

• “boa”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

• abo

From Latin boa (“large snake”).

• IPA^(key): /bɔ.a/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

boa m (plural boas)

1. boa (snake)
2. boa (scarf)

• boa constricteur

• “boa”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• IPA^(key): /ˈboa/ [ˈbo.ɐ]
• Rhymes: -oa
• Hyphenation: bo‧a

From Latin boa (“large snake”).

boa f (plural boas)

1. boa (snake)
2. boa (scarf)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

boa

1. feminine singular of bo

• “boa”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

From Dutch boa, from Middle Dutch boa, from Latin boa.

• IPA^(key): [ˈboa̯]
• Hyphenation: boa

boa (plural boa-boa)

1. boa, snake of the genus Boa
2. fur or plumed scarf, boa

• “boa”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

From Latin boa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔ.a/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɔa
• Hyphenation: bò‧a

boa m (invariable)

1. boa (snake)
2. boa (scarf)

boa f (plural boe)

1. buoy

boa

1. moon

• Čestmír Loukotka, ‎Johannes Wilbert (editor), Classification of South American Indian Languages (1968, Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California), page(s) 88-89

First mentioned by Pliny. From Proto-Italic *gʷouā (with the b- due to a Sabellic intermediary), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷówyeh₂, a derivative of *gʷówyos (“pertaining to cows”). The semantic derivation stems from folk beliefs that snakes could drink cow milk; such folklore also underlies Serbo-Croatian guja and kravosas,^[1] the former being an exact cognate to the Latin word.

boa f (genitive boae); first declension

1. A large snake native to Roman Italy.
2. A disease, the measles or smallpox.

First-declension noun.

• → Middle Dutch: boa
  • Dutch: boa
    • → Indonesian: boa
• → Middle English: boa
  • English: boa
• → Middle French: boa
  • French: boa

boā

1. second-person singular present active imperative of boō

• “boa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "boa", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)

boa

1. lie; falsehood

boa m (definite singular boaen, indefinite plural boaer, definite plural boaene)

1. boa

boa m (definite singular boaen, indefinite plural boaer or boaar, definite plural boaene or boaane)

1. boa

Borrowed from French boa.^[1] First attested in 1836.^[2]

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔ.a/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔa
• Syllabification: bo‧a

boa m animal (indeclinable)

2. boa (any snake of the genus Boa)

   duży boa ― a large boa

   niewielki boa ― a small boa

   kilkumetrowy boa ― a boa a few meters long

   wygłodzony boa ― a starving boa

   wąż boa ― a boa snake

   cielsko boa ― a boa carcass

boa n (indeclinable)

2. boa (type of long scarf; typically made from synthetic or real feathers (or occasionally fur), and usually worn by being draped across the shoulders with the ends hanging low, sometimes also with a loop around the neck)

   futrzane boa ― a furry boa

   pierzaste boa ― a feather boa

   puchowe boa ― a down boa

   wyłysiałe boa ― a featherless boa

   boa z piór ― a boa made of feathers

   boa ze strusich piór ― a boa made of ostrich feathers

   szal z boa ― a boa scarf

   poprawiać boa ― to fix a boa

   włożyć na szyję boa ― to wrap a boa around one's neck

   owinięty boa ― wrapped in a boa

• boa in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• boa in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• boa in PWN's encyclopedia

• bõa (archaic, dialectal)
• boua (dialectal)

• Audio (Brazil):

  (file)

• Audio (Brazil):

  (file)

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɐ, -owɐ
• Hyphenation: bo‧a

From Old Galician-Portuguese bõa, from Latin bona, feminine of bonus (“good”). Cognate with Galician boa and Spanish buena. See more at bom.

boa

1. feminine singular of bom

boa f (plural boas)

1. an interesting story, joke or news

boa!

1. good one!, well done!, all right! (expresses approval, applause or admiration)

Learned borrowing from taxonomic name Boa, from Latin boa (“large Italian snake species”).

boa f (plural boas)

1. boa (any snake of the Boa genus)

   Synonym: jiboia

• “boa”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “boa”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French boa.

boa m (uncountable)

1. boa constrictor

Borrowed from Latin boa.

• IPA^(key): /ˈboa/ [ˈbo.a]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oa
• Syllabification: bo‧a

boa f (plural boas)

1. boa (snake)
2. boa (scarf made from feathers)

• “boa”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

From Latin boa.

boa c

1. boa (snake)

   Synonym: boaorm

2. boa (scarf)
3. (Småland) the shed

• boaorm
• fjäderboa

• boa in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• boa in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• boa in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From French pourboire (“tip”, literally “for-drink”).

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓwaː˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓwaː˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɓwaː˧˧]

boa

1. to leave a tip; to give gratuity

   tiền boa ― a tip

• bao