Where does “boulder” come from?
Boulder comes from Middle English bulder and bilder, formed with the Middle English agent suffix -er from Old French -er, ultimately from Latin -arius, a suffix for agent nouns derived from Latin -are verbs, tracing back to Proto-Indo-European bʰew-.
boulder (English): A large mass of stone detached from the...
Definitions
- A large mass of stone detached from the...
Ancestry of “boulder”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | bulder | Alternative form of bilder |
| 2 | Old Norse | bolli | goblet, cup |
| 3 | Proto-Germanic | bullô | round object; ball; bowl |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | ballô | ball |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰel- | to sound; to speak, roar, bark; shiny, white; to... |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰōl- | — |
Words derived from “boulder”