boon \boon\, noun:
1. Something to be thankful for; blessing; benefit.
2. Something that is asked; a favor sought.
China has simultaneously become the greatest boon and the biggest disappointment.
-- Adam Davidson, "Come On, China, Buy Our Stuff!," The New York Times, Jan. 29, 2012
A boon to scholars and to those surreptitiously in search of esoteric knowledge. The reader in the shadowy, out-of-the-way carrel stifled a whoop of delight.
-- Carolyn G. Hart, "A Little Class on Murder"
Boon comes from the Old Norse word bōn meaning "a prayer."
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