bytlian

1) lair or lying place (of beasts and cattle);

2) couch, bed (tóku sumir heyhjálma nökkura ok gerðúu sér af ból);

3) farm, esp. in Norway, = bólstaðr, bœr, jörð.

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n. [A. S. botl and bolt, byld, = aedes, mansio; cp. bytlian = aedificare; Engl. to build. In Scandin. contracted in the same way as nál for nadal: böl and böll are very freq. in Dan. local names, and even mark the line of Scandin. settlements]:—‘built,’ i. e. reclaimed and cultivated land, a farm, abode, esp. in Norway, where ból answers to Icel. jörð, Dan. gård; the value of the Norse farms is denoted by merkr-ból, eyris-ból, or the like; taka bóli, to take a farm, Gþl. 328, 354. In Icel. this sense is almost obsolete, and only remains in such words as, ból-staðr, ból-festa; in local names as, Hörðu-ból, Sæ-ból, Lauga-ból, Ból-staðr, Breiðaból-staðr; in such phrases as, á bygðu bóli (opp. to wilderness), hvergi á bygðu bóli, i. e. nowhere, nowhere among men; and in a few law passages, Grág. ii. 279, Fms. x. 153, Otherwise, in Icel. ból and bæli denote the lair or lying place of beasts or cattle; ból and kvía-ból, the place where sheep and cows are penned; bæla fé, to pen sheep during the night.

β. a den, Eg. 41, Fas. iii. 345, cp. Edda 74 ( the lair of a serpent); tóku sumir heyhjálma nokkura ok görðu sér af ból, a bed of hay, Fms. vii. 296; liggja í bólinn, to lie a-bed, of a lazy fellow; cp. bæli.