"How now, brown cow?"

"Bow wow wow
Who's dog art thou?
Little Tommy Tucker's dog.
Bow wow wow"

Bow wow wow in the above: human imitation of the sound dogs seem to enjoy when warning off competitors or greeting their masters

But dogs are sometimes named "Beau," which sounds like the bow in bow tie, which would have been cuter if it had been called the beau tie. Of course, there are bows on packages and bows in little girls' hair--but by far funnier had beaux been on packages and beaux in little girls' hair. All of the bow, beau, and beaux words here rhyme with no as do the bow used with bowed string instruments and the {-shaped one used in archery.

Now the forward part of the ship is called its bow, too, and we Americans would rhyme it with now. But I'm not sure about the Brits because what we Americans call the bowsprit (rhyming with the nonsense word nowsprit), the Brits pronounce the same bowsprit to rhyme with no-sprit, nonsense word here again. Question: Do the British rhyme the ship's bow with no?

You've posed a word that holds many a pronunciation problem to figure out, and I shall now take my leave, too, by bowing out, not at the hips but at the waist.

Bow regards,
Wordwind