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Billy vs William - What's the difference?

billy | william |

William is a related term of billy.



As proper nouns the difference between billy and william

is that billy is a diminutive of the male given name William while William is a given name derived from Germanic popular since the Norman Conquest.

As a noun billy

is a billy club.

billy

English

Noun

(billies)
  • A billy club.
  • A billy goat.
  • * 1970 August, Valerius Geist, Mountain Goat Mysteries'', '' , page 62,
  • Then, during three days, I was amazed to see nannies with kids attack and chase off large billies .
  • * 1992 , Dwight R. Schuh, Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus)'', in ''Bowhunter's Encyclopedia , page 276,
  • In fact, distinguishing between billies and nannies isn't necessarily a sure thing.
  • * 2002 , Douglas H. Chadwick, A Beast the Color of Winter: The Mountain Goat Observed , page 159,
  • It isn't just billies that enter the bleak season with rut-depleted fat reserves, but rams, bull elk, buck deer, and others.
  • # A male goat; a ram.
  • (Geordie) A good friend.
  • (Australia, New Zealand) A tin used by bushmen to boil tea, a billypot.
  • * (seeCites)
  • (UK, Australia) A billycan.
  • Let's get the billy and cook some beans.
  • * 1889 , Ernest Giles, Australia Twice Traversed , 2004, page 239,
  • We had been absent from civilisation, so long, that our tin billies', the only boiling utensils we had, got completely worn or burnt out at the bottoms, and as the boilings for glue and oil must still go on, what were we to do with ' billies with no bottoms?
  • * 2011 , Rod Moss, The Hard Light of Day: An Artist's Story of Friendships in Arrernte Country , unnumbered page,
  • Over the fence, in a shallow gully 100 metres away, this guy and his wife were living on the dirt in the open weather with just a blanket, billies , a dog and a transistor radio. They didn't even have water.
  • (slang) A condom (From the E-Rotic song "Willy, Use a Billy...Boy")
  • A slubbing or roving machine.
  • * 1840 , The Citizen , page 347,
  • at the time there existed in Dublin and its immediate neighbourhood, “forty-five manufacturers, having twenty-two billies , giving employment to 2885 work people, on whom depended for support 7386 individuals, manufacturing 29,312 pieces of cloth, of various qualities, valued at £336,380.”
  • * 1967 , Jennifer Tann, Gloucestershire Woollen Mills: Industrial Archaeology , page 126,
  • On the second floor there were 2 billies , 1 carding and 1 scribbling machine.

    Derived terms

    * billycan, billy-can * billy cart * Silly Billy, silly billy

    References

    * * Sceilig: Information Pack for Troops (p. 4) * The Patrol goes to Camp (pp. 9, 11).

    william

    English

    Proper noun

    (en proper noun)
  • popular since the Norman Conquest.
  • * 1605 , Remains Concerning Britain , John Russell Smith, 1870, p.98:
  • This name hath been most common in England since King William' the Conquerour,insomuch that upon a festival day in the Court of King Henry the Second, when Sir '''William''' Saint-John, and Sir '''William''' Fitz-Hamon, especial Officers, had commanded that none but of the name of '''William''' should dine in the great Chamber with them, they were accompanied with a hundred and twenty ' Williams .
  • * 2004 , California, Here I Am , TwentyFirst Century Publishers Ltd, ISBN 1904433219, page29-30:
  • By the same token I should probably have called myself 'Bill'. With a name like William' you have choices. Very handy for us chameleons. '' William' is stern and dignified. A little austere and unapproachable. He conquers things. It is what my mother calls me when she is angry with me.

    Statistics

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