"B" Word Origins

bookshop

Origin

A compound of "book" and "shop."

bookstall

Origin

From book + stall.

bookstore

Origin

A compound of "book" and "store."

bookworm

Origin

A literal compound of "book" and "worm," first describing the insect pest before being applied affectionately to avid readers.

booky

Origin

Perhaps from book (“to flee, leave hurriedly”) + -y.

bool

Origin

From a keyword in C++ and derived programming languages, short for Boolean.

boolean

English

From the surname of George Boole, the nineteenth-century English mathematician whose work on the algebra of logic the term commemorates, plus the adjectival ending -an.

boom

Origin

Imitative in origin, echoing a deep, hollow sound; the economic sense of "rapid growth" likely grew out of the idea of things suddenly expanding, as in a loud burst.

boomer

Origin

A shortened form of "baby boomer," referring to the surge in births following the Second World War.

boomerang

Origin · 1790

Origin uncertain, but likely from an Aboriginal Australian language; early English spellings of the word appear from around 1790.

Booms

Dutch

Borrowed from Dutch and North German Booms.

boon

Old Norse

From Old Norse bón, "a prayer or request," later blending with an unrelated word meaning "good" — which is why "boon" now means a helpful gift or blessing.

boonies

Tagalog

A clipped form of "boondocks," which was popularized by US troops in the Vietnam War to describe remote rural areas, ultimately from a Tagalog word for "mountain."

boop

Origin

An imitative, playful word related to "beep," used for a light tapping motion or its sound.

boor

Dutch

From Dutch boer, "peasant" or "farmer" — the same root as "Boer" and "bauer" — which shifted over time to mean someone lacking refined manners.

boorish

Origin

Formed from "boor" plus the adjective suffix "-ish."

Boorman

Origin

Variant of Bowerman.

boost

Origin · 1815

Origin uncertain; the verb first appears in English around 1815, possibly related to an older Scots word meaning "to shove or push."

booster

Origin

Formed from the verb "boost" plus the agent suffix "-er."

boot

Old French

From Old French bote, "a high, thick shoe," of uncertain earlier origin. The computing sense of "boot" comes from "bootstrap" — the idea of a system pulling itself up "by its own bootstraps" to start running.

bootful

Origin

From boot + -ful.

booth

Old English

From Middle English bothe, borrowed from an Old Norse word related to Old English "bud" (a dwelling) — the same root gave German "Bude."

bootleg

Origin · 1700

From "boot" + "leg" — smugglers in the 1700s and 1800s hid illegal bottles of liquor inside the legs of their tall boots.

bootlegger

Origin

From "bootleg" + "-er" — originally referring to Prohibition-era smugglers who hid liquor bottles in their boots.

bootless

Origin

From Middle English boteles, botles, from Old English bōtlēas; equivalent to boot (“profit; use; behoof”) + -less. Doublet of botleas.

bootlick

Origin

From boot + lick.

bootlicker

Origin

From boot + licker.

bootlip

Origin

From boot + lip.

bootstrap

English

From boot and strap, the small loop used to pull a boot on, via the ironic image of pulling oneself up by one's own bootstraps, which was originally a description of something impossible.

booty

Old French

From Old French "butin" ("loot" or "plunder"), borrowed into Middle English; the "buttocks" sense developed much later as slang, possibly influenced by "boot."

booyah

French

Possibly linked to "bouillon," the French word for broth, since the stew starts from a long-simmered meat-bone broth.

booze

Origin

A dialectal Northern English form of an older word, "bowse," meaning to drink deeply.

boozer

Origin

From "booze" plus the suffix "-er."

boozy

Origin

From "booze" + "-y."

bop

Origin

An imitative word, echoing the sound of a light tap or bounce.

bora

Origin

Borrowed via other European languages, ultimately traced to a word meaning "north wind" or "north."

boracic

Origin

From Medieval Latin borax (genitive boracis), itself via Arabic بَوْرَق (bawraq), from Persian بوره (bura).

bord

Origin

From board, which is also a less common variant of bord; probably from the former practice of laying boards in mine passageways to form a relatively smooth surface along which the coal was dragged in sledges.

Bordeaux

Latin

From the French city name Bordeaux, itself traced back through Occitan and Latin "Burdigala" to an older Celtic name.

bordello

Latin

From Italian "bordello," ultimately related to a Latin word for a small hut, later used specifically for a brothel.

border

Old French

From Old French "bordeure," of Germanic origin, related to the word "board" in the sense of an edge or rim.

borderland

Origin

From border + land.

borderline

Origin

From "border" + "line," originally describing a line marking a boundary.

bore

Latin

From Old English "borian" ("to pierce"), related to Latin words for piercing or striking; the "dull person" sense likely grew from the idea of wearing someone down, as if drilling into them.

boreal

Origin

Borrowed from Latin boreālis (“northern”), from Boreās, from Ancient Greek Βορέᾱς (Boréās, “personification of the north wind”).

borecole

Origin

From Dutch boerenkool (“kale”). See cole.

bored

Origin

From "bore" (the verb) + "-ed."

boredom

Origin

From "bore" + "-dom," following the pattern of words like "freedom" and "wisdom."