A Scottish term for a landed proprietor or farmer of modest means, particularly one in Lowland Scotland.
From Scots bonailie, possibly from Scottish Gaelic meaning 'good' + 'land.' The term is primarily historical and reflects Scottish agricultural and social structures of earlier centuries.
This forgotten Scottish word captures a whole social class that vanished—small-scale farmers and landowners who had their own specific place in Scottish society, now only found in old documents.
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