Boss
nounA person who manages or supervises workers or an organisation.
How to spell boss
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce boss
What does boss mean?
- nounA person who manages or supervises workers or an organisation.
- verbTo give orders to someone in an overbearing or domineering way.
Boss in a sentence
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noun
The boss approved my request for two weeks of leave.
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verb
He tends to boss his younger colleagues around during busy shifts.
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noun
Every department reports to the same boss at head office.
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verb
She refuses to let anyone boss her in her own kitchen.
Where does boss come from?
Language of origin: Dutch
This word came into American English from the Dutch baas, meaning 'master' or 'foreman', a title used by the early Dutch settlers of New York in the 1600s. American colonists found baas a handy substitute for 'master', which had grown distasteful in a society uneasy about servitude, and by the early 1800s the spelling had settled into the English form 'boss'. From naming the person in charge of work it quickly grew a verb sense, to direct or domineer over others, and an adjective slang sense meaning excellent or first-rate. A quite separate sense, a rounded raised stud or knob used in architecture and metalwork, has a different history and comes through Old French boce, meaning a swelling or lump. The everyday 'person in charge' sense, the one with the Dutch roots, is by far the most common today.
How the word is built
- boss (from Dutch baas: master, foreman); single root, no affixes
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