Etymology
No entirely convincing etymology has been proposed for ME
bost and its related v. (TGD and GDS both give its source as uknown). (1) Kluge (followed by Bj.) suggests an origin in an OE
*bosettan, relating
*bos- to the root of OHG
bōsi ‘worthless’ (Ger
böse), which is itself usually explained as descended from the same PGmc
*baus- as Norw
baus (and cp. further e.g. MLG
bös(e), MDu
boos,
bose, OE and OFris
bās(a)). Most have since rejected Kluge's reconstructed OE v., but some connection with this etymological family is sometimes maintained (eg. Pokorny I.101 and (tentatively) Lloyd and Lühr). If this is so, then such an OE
*bos- must be derived from the zero-grade of the
*baus- root, i.e. a PGmc
*bus-, which is sometimes believed to be otherwise attested in OIcel
busilkinna ?’woman with round cheeks’ (so Torp s.v. Baus, Heid.) and Norw
bos(s), OSw
bos ‘chaff, piece of straw’ (so Torp s.v. Bos, Tamm, Lloyd and Lühr). (2) The most plausible source for the vocalism of ME
bost is a Romance word in
-ost (with later lengthening of /o/ in English) (
OED), and there is a suitable AN n.
bost ‘boasting, ostentation’ (
ODEE,
MED). This n. has in turn been derived from Gmc., citing Scandinavian forms from the group described in (1), e.g. Norw
baus (
MED) or directly from ON
bausta (cp. OIcel
bausta ‘to push (at), strike, thrash’) (Luick, for an AN
bǫst). The evidence for such an AN n. is tenuous, however: it is recorded only once by
AND (followed by
DEAF), from
Le Tretiz by Walter de Bibbesworth (c. 1250), and may thus be better accounted for as a loan from ME (thus
AND).
PGmc Ancestor
(1) *bus-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
(1) cp. busilkinna ?’woman with round cheeks’
(ONP )
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
(1) Norw bos(s), OSw bos
OE Cognate
(1) *bos-
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
DD1