[Vwoolf] boss of the back

[Sarah M. Hall]

 By George, I think we've got it!


    On Wednesday, 22 April 2020, 17:10:48 BST, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:  
 
 I find in this book (1834) by Walter Scott, which contains notes etc. to his works, there is a glossary: boss = hollowhttps://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HR5RAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA10-PA3&dq=%22boss%22+%22walter+scott%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi85cyiqvzoAhWaRBUIHerpBtsQ6AEIbjAI#v=onepage&q=boss&f=falseI haven’t found where he used the word in this sense. Stuart  From: Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 1:43 PMTo: vwoolf Subject: [Vwoolf] boss of the back 
My colleague Laurence Davies, co-editor of Conrad's Collected Letters and amazingly well informed about almost everything, writes this:

"Could boss mean the small of the back? According to the Scots Dialect Dictionary (ed Alexander Warrock), the noun 'boss' can denote a hollow. (The online OED records this usage as a Scoticism -- sense 10 -- but records it as an adjective.)"

Did Woolf have anyone in her circle of friends who might make use a Scottish expression / term?

This seems the most promising lead so far for the Jacob's Room puzzle.

Jeremy H

-- 
Jeremy Hawthorn
Emeritus Professor
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
7491 Trondheim
Norway

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