bowssen

Ultimately borrowed from Cornish beudhi or Breton beuziñ (“to drown”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaʊsən/

bowssen (third-person singular simple present bowssens, present participle bowssening, simple past and past participle bowssened)

1. (obsolete, Cornwall) To dunk or immerse (into water, for remedial purposes).
   • 1609, Richard Carew, “The Second Booke”, in The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC, folio 123, recto:

     There were many bowssening places, for curing of mad men.

• “bowssen”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Bowness, besnows