bisson

From Middle English bisen, bisne (“blind, purblind”), from Old English bisene (“blind”), probably from bi- (“near”) + sīen (“sight”) in the sense of "near-sighted, short-sighted". Compare Dutch bijziende (“mole-eyed”), German beisichtig (“short-sighted”). More at by, see.

• enPR: bĭs'in, IPA^(key): /ˈbɪsin/

bisson (comparative more bisson, superlative most bisson)

1. (obsolete) Sandblind, purblind.
   • 1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour, Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, page 32:

     He was a septuagenary, […] He was rugose, pachydermatous, bottlenosed, almost bisson, breviped, tardigradous, and affected with trepidation, partial surdity, and most perceptible seity. Archaisms, exoticisms, and exolete lingo marked his allocution to the conflux.

2. (obsolete) Blinding.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     Run bare-foote vp and downe,
     Threatning the flame
     With Biſſon Rheume […]

• bisons

Compare French buisson

bisson (m)

1. A bush (“shrub, woody plant, like a small trunkless tree”)