"B" Word Origins

A straightforward compound of board and walk.

From Middle English bosten, likely from a Germanic root meaning "inflated" or "puffed up" — the same idea behind being full of yourself.

From boast + -er.

From boast plus the suffix -ful.

From Old English bāt, an ancient Germanic word for a small vessel.

From boat + building.

From Middle English botere; equivalent to boat + -er. The use of the term for a straw hat stems from the fact that straw hats were the preferred head covering during sunny boat trips on canals and rivers.

A compound of boat and house.

From boat plus load; the informal "large amount" sense grew out of the literal one.

From boat plus man, originally naming the occupation.

From Old English bātswegen, literally "boat" plus "swain" (a Norse-derived word for "boy" or "servant").

From Biblical Hebrew Bo'az.

From Middle English bobben, "to strike or shake," of uncertain deeper origin.

From Chinese 波霸 (bōbà), a slang term whose use for the large tapioca pearls carried over into English.

Uncertain; occurs earliest in British thieves' cant and Chinese Pidgin English, as well as extensively throughout British dialect. In origin, unrelated to the Anglo-Indian exclamation.

Borrowed from French bobine, recorded in English since 1530.

From bob plus the diminutive suffix -le.

Named after Sir Robert Peel, who founded London's modern police force — "bobby" is a nickname derived from "Robert."

Named for its short, "bobbed" tail plus cat.

A blend of "bourgeois" and "bohemian," popularized by the American writer David Brooks to describe a certain kind of affluent professional in the 1990s.

Onomatopoeia.

Borrowed from Italian bocce.

Borrowed from French argot boche, popularized among Allied troops during the First World War.

From German Bockbier.

From Irish bacaidí, from bacach (“lame”).

A shortening of "body."

American Southern slang from the 1800s, likely blending "bold" and "audacious."

From Old English bodian, "to announce or foretell," related to the word bid.

From bode + -ful.

From Spanish bodega, going back through Latin to Ancient Greek apotheke, "storehouse" — the same root as apothecary and boutique. The word became common in New York through Puerto Rican and other Latino communities.

As an English or German surname, from words meaning "messenger" or "bottom, ground."

Inherited from Middle English bocchen (“to mend, patch up, repair”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Middle Dutch botsen, butsen, boetsen (“to repair, patch”) (Dutch botsen (“to strike, beat, knock together”)), related to Old High German bōzan (“to beat”), See beat; or perhaps from Old English bōtettan (“to improve, repair”), Old English bōtian (“to get better”). Compare botch. More at boot. Perhaps from boggle. Perhaps from botch (“patch, or a measurement of capacity equivalent to half a peck”). There is a hypothesis that bodges, defined as rough sacks of corn, closely resembled packages of finished goods the bodgers carried when they left the forest or workshop. Another hypothesis (dating from 1879) is that bodger was a corruption of badger, as similarly to the behaviour of a badger, the bodger dwelt in the woods and seldom emerged until evenings. Other hypotheses include German Böttcher (“cooper (profession)”), a trade that uses similar tools), and similar Scandinavian words, such the Danish bødker. These words have similar origins to butt, as in water butt (“rain barrel”). Or possibly it may have been a derogatory term used by workers in furniture factories, referring to the

From bodg(er) + -ie.

From Sanskrit बोधि (bodhi), meaning "awakening," from a root meaning "to know."

From Sanskrit बोधिसत्त्व (bodhisattva), literally "enlightenment-being," from bodhi ("awakening") + sattva ("being").

From "bodies," the old plural of "body," once used for a close-fitting undergarment worn over the torso.

* As a Scottish surname, variant of Body, Boddy, Boddie. * As a French surname, variant of Bodi, see Beaudin.

From Middle English bodily, built from body plus the suffix -ly.

From Old English bodig ("trunk, torso, height, stature"), from a Proto-Germanic root ultimately tied to Proto-Indo-European bhewdh-, "to be awake, to observe."

A straightforward compound of body and guard.

From body + style.

From body + suit.

A compound of body and work.

An anglicized spelling of the German surname Böing, after founder William Boeing.

From Boeotia.

From Afrikaans boer, "farmer," a doublet of the English words bauer, boor, and bower.

Borrowed from Dutch Boers.

Origin uncertain; one popular theory links it to the bumbling "Mr. Boffin" character in Dickens's novel Our Mutual Friend.