boss

   This word was introduced into English only at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was adapted from Dutch baas (master) and may have come from sea-usage, the captain of a Dutch ship being addressed as baas. In English the word acknowledges the right of someone to give orders, while avoiding some of the over-servile associations of ‘master’. Originally an American term, it was later used jokingly in England by workmen. It is still used jokingly in conversation by, e.g. a husband to his wife, especially if she is being bossy at the time. It is the traditional term by which football managers in Britain are addressed by their players. In Diamonds are Forever, Ian Fleming shows another traditional use, when a gang member uses it to his leader. The jokey use between the sexes is shown in Pray for the Wanderer, by Kate O’Brien, where a man says to his girl-friend, who is teasing him for not having bothered to open his letters, ‘All right, boss - open them for me.’ In My Brother Jonathan, by Francis Brett Young, it is equated with ‘gaffer’ and used as a general title of respect to a doctor. Arthur Hailey, in Hotel, has it being used by an American cab-driver to his fare. Like Any Other Man, by Patrick Boyle, a novel set in Ireland, has it used by one man to another as a friendly term of address.