Past tense of buoy; to have supported or kept afloat, or to have encouraged and lifted someone's spirits.
Past tense of buoy, from Middle English boie, from Old French buie, from Dutch boei. The verb buoy can mean literally 'to keep afloat' or figuratively 'to sustain spirits or hopes.'
The phrase 'buoyed by hope' became so common in English that people forgot it originally came from actual buoys keeping ships afloat—it's a metaphor that perfectly captures how language lets us float emotional states the way physical buoys float ships.
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