"B" Word Origins

burying

Middle English

Inherited from Middle English biryinge, buryinge; by surface analysis, bury + ing.

bus

Latin · 1800

A clipping of "omnibus," Latin for "for all" — originally the name for a horse-drawn public passenger vehicle in 19th-century France.

Busan

Korean

Borrowed from the Korean name 부산 (Busan).

busbar

Origin

From bus + bar.

busboy

Origin

"Bus" here is a clipping of "omnibus" in the older sense of "assistant waiter," combined with "boy."

busby

Origin

Origin uncertain; likely derived from the surname Busby.

Busch

German

From German Busch ("thicket, wood").

bush

Old English

From Old English "busc"/"bysc," tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root for "bush" or "thicket," itself related to a word meaning "to grow."

bushel

Old French

From Old French "boissel," ultimately from a Gaulish word for "handful."

busher

Origin

From bush + -er.

bushido

Japanese

From Japanese 武士道 (bushidō), literally "way of the warrior," combining words for "warrior" and "way/path."

bushland

Origin

From bush + land.

bushmanship

Origin

From bushman + -ship.

bushwah

Origin

Uncertain, first attested in the 1900s. Perhaps from dialectal bodewash (“dried buffalo dung”) or by Etymology 2, from bourgeois. Subsequently used as a minced oath variant of bullshit, though bullshit itself is only attested from the 1910s.

bushwalking

Origin

From bush + walking.

bushwhack

Origin

From bush + whack.

bushy

Origin

From bush plus the adjective-forming suffix -y — literally "like a bush."

business

Old English

From Old English bisignes, "state of being busy," built from busy plus -ness. Originally it just meant busyness before narrowing to mean commercial activity.

businesslike

Origin

From business plus -like.

businessman

Origin

From business plus man; it replaced the older word merchant in everyday use.

businessperson

Origin

From business + person.

businesswoman

Origin

From business plus woman.

busk

Origin

Apparently from French busquer or Spanish buscar.

buskin

Origin

Apparently from Old French bousequin, variant of brousequin (compare modern French brodequin), probably from Middle Dutch broseken, of unknown origin.

busload

Origin

From bus plus load.

buss

Origin

Uncertain. First attested in the 1560s. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰus- (“lip, to kiss”) via Proto-Germanic *busaną (compare German bussen), but in any case imitative of kissing. Compare Welsh bus (“kiss, lip”) and Irish bus (“lips, mouth”) (both may have influenced English), Persian بوس (bus, “kiss”), Latvian buča (“kiss”), Latin basium (“kiss”). Mainstream proposals like in The Free Dictionary have suggested it is a blend of old English dialect words bass (related to French baiser) and cuss (akin to kissen); perhaps compare puss.

bust

French

The verb comes from a Middle English variant of "burst," so bust and burst are historically the same word. The noun meaning "head-and-shoulders sculpture" or "chest measurement" comes from a separate root, French buste.

busted

Origin

See bust (Etymology 2)

buster

Origin

Originally a dialect form of "burster," later shaped by association with the verb bust. The "-buster" ending became especially popular after radio's Gang Busters and the film Ghostbusters.

bustle

Middle English

From Middle English bustlen, possibly linked to Old Norse búask ("to prepare oneself"), with echoes of an older word meaning "to beat or pummel."

bustline

Origin

From bust + line.

busty

Origin

From bust ("breast, chest") plus -y.

busy

Old English

From Old English bisig ("occupied, diligent"). The unusual spelling with "u" comes from Midland and Southern English dialects, even though the modern pronunciation follows the Eastern dialects' vowel sound.

busybody

Origin

From busy plus body — literally someone who keeps their "body" busy meddling in others' lives.

but

Old English

From Old English butan, meaning "outside of, except," itself built from be- plus out.

butane

Origin

Built from but- (a prefix indicating four carbon atoms, from the same root as "butter") plus the chemistry suffix -ane used for alkanes.

butch

Origin · 1940

Probably originally short for "butcher"; the meaning "masculine lesbian" developed in the 1940s.

butcher

Old French

From Old French bouchier, "goat slaughterer," from bouc ("goat"), tracing back to a Germanic word for a male goat — the same root as the English word "buck."

butchering

Origin

From butcher plus -ing.

butchery

Old French

From Old French boucherie, related to butcher.

buteo

Origin

From the genus name Buteo, from Latin būteō.

butler

Latin

From Old French boteillier, "officer in charge of wine," ultimately from the same Latin root as "bottle."

butt

Old English

From Old English words meaning "small piece of land" or "end, stub," ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "end" or "bottom."

butte

French

Borrowed from French butte, meaning "mound" or "knoll."

butter

Latin

From Old English butere, ultimately from Greek boutyron, a compound of "ox/cow" and "cheese." The word entered English through Latin.

butterball

Origin

From butter plus ball.

buttercup

Origin

From butter + cup. Both sense 1 and 2 are from the flowers' association with butter, from their yellow colour. Compare butterflower for a similar derivation; outside of English, compare Dutch boterbloem, German Butterblume.

butterface

Origin

Ellipsis of various forms of everything looks good but her face, great body but her face, among other phrases, under the influence of butter (perhaps also with connotation of “plainness”, grease, etc.) and buttface. Compare summerteeth.