1 God 20-.
2 a rich gentleman, a king, a kind man 20-. etymology: been ‘fine, good, costly rich, gentle’ + Scots cowl ‘a man’ below; also collected by EMcC/PS; been also attested in Shelta and Galloway and Perthshire and Argyleshire Tinkler-Gypsies; senses 1 and 2 attested by BS in TDITA; attested and collected by JS; form bien coul sense 2 attested by SS note:
Cited by Canadian Paul Pope (2013) as bene cowal and defined as ‘God’ and glossed as ‘a good man’ and also as a ‘king’.