BULL. (I) The male of animals belonging to the section Bovina of the family Bovidae (q.v.), particularly the uncastrated male of the domestic ox. (See CATTLE.) The word is also used of the males of other large animals such as the elephant, whale, etc. The O.E. diminutive form bulluc, a young bull, survives in bullock, now confined to a young castrated male ox kept for slaughter.
The term "bull's eye" is applied to many circular objects and particularly to the boss or protuberance left in the centre of a sheet of blown glass, which was formerly used for windows in small leaded panes (cf. French veil de bceuf, a circular window). Other circular objects to which the word is applied are the centre of a target, a plano-convex lens in a microscope, a lantern with a convex glass, a thick circular glass let into the deck or side of a ship for lighting, a ring-shaped block grooved round the outer edge, with a hole through which a rope can be passed, and a small lurid cloud which in certain latitudes presages a hurricane.
(2) The use of the word "bull," for a verbal blunder, involving a contradiction in terms, is of doubtful origin. It is used with a possible punning reference to papal bulls in Milton's True Religion, "and whereas the Papist boasts himself to be a Roman Catholick, it is a mere contradiction, one of the Pope's Bulls, as if he should say a universal particular, a Catholick schis matick." Although modern associations connect this type of blunder with the Irish, the early quotations show that in the 17th century, no special country was credited with them.
(3) Bulla (Lat. for "bubble") was the term used by the Romans for any boss or stud, such as those on doors, sword-belts, shields, and boxes. It was applied, more particularly, to a round or heart-shaped box, generally of gold, containing an amulet, worn suspended from the neck by children of noble birth until they assumed the toga virilis, when it was hung up and then dedi cated to the household gods of the Etruscans. The custom of wearing the bulla as a charm against sickness and the evil eye was of Etruscan origin. After the Second Punic War all children of free birth were permitted to wear it. Its use was only per mitted to grown-up men in the case of generals who celebrated a triumph. Young girls and even favourite animals also wore it. (See Ficoroni, La Bolla d'Oro, 1732 ; Yates Archaeological Journal, vi., 1849; viii., In ecclesiastical and mediaeval Latin, bulla denotes the seal of oval or circular form, bearing the name and generally the image of its owner, which was attached to official documents. The best-known instances are the papal bullae, which have given their name to the documents (bulls) to which they are attached. (See DIPLOMATIC; SEALS;