Etymologically
Log in

boil

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 03:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

English has two words spelled boil: the verb, from French, and the noun for a skin swelling, a native word.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bɔɪ(ə)l/[4]

boil1 to bubble with heat

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English boillen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman boiller and Old French boillir (earlier bolir, modern French bouillir),[2][3][5][6] from Latin bulliō (“to bubble, seethe”),[2][7][8] from bulla (“bubble”),[2][3][6] perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to swell”).[8] The native word was seethe.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To reach the boiling point: about 1225, in the Life of St Juliana;[7] Barnhart dates boillen about 1300.[3]

Semantic evolution

Of water or other things moving as if boiling, to seethe or bubble, is from about 1300,[7] and of passions and angry people from about 1386, in Chaucer;[7] Etymonline dates the figurative sense of feelings from the 1640s.[8] The noun, an act or state of boiling, is probably from about 1425.[3] boiler appears in 1305 as a surname of a cook, and as a vessel for boiling in 1725, in Defoe.[3] Thieves' slang used boil for to betray or unmask (1602).[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – to reach boiling point.[7]
  • c. 1300 – to seethe like boiling water.[7]
  • c. 1386 – of passions.[7]
  • c. 1425 – the noun, an act of boiling.[3]
  • 1725 – boiler, a vessel for boiling.[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. Of a liquid, to reach the temperature at which it bubbles and turns to vapour.
  2. To cook food in boiling water.
  3. To bubble or churn like boiling water.
  4. To be very angry; to seethe.

Noun

  1. The state or point of boiling: bring to the boil.
  2. A swirling upwelling of water, as in a river.

Word family

  • boiler
  • boiling
  • boil-off
  • boilover

boil2 skin swelling

Etymology

The swelling is inherited from Middle English bile, altered in form, inherited from Old English bȳle (also bȳl),[2][3][7][5] from Proto-West Germanic *būlja (“swelling”),[8][1][10] cognate with Old Frisian bēle, Old High German būlla (“bladder, swelling”), German Beule, Dutch buil and Icelandic beyla (“hump”).[3][7][11] The base is also seen in Gothic 𐌿𐍆𐌱𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (ufbauljan, “to puff up”),[7][5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to swell”).[11][8] The spelling boil began in the 15th or 16th century, perhaps from association with the verb.[1][5][3][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hard, inflamed, pus-filled swelling: Old English, in a vocabulary;[7] Barnhart dates bīl, bīle to about 1000.[3]

Semantic evolution

Middle English bile is found about 1300, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,[3] and the form boil in 1529, in Sir Thomas More,[3] perhaps under the influence of the verb, which in Middle English boillinge could mean inflammation.[3] Weekley notes that bile survived in dialect.[13][14] A swelling of any kind is from 1481, in Caxton,[7] a blister on paint from 1841,[7] and a figurative use from 1537.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English bȳle.[3]
  • c. 1300 – Middle English bile.[3]
  • 1481 – any swelling.[7]
  • 1529 – the spelling boil.[3]
  • 1841 – a blister on paintwork.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A painful, pus-filled swelling of the skin caused by infection of a hair follicle; a furuncle.

References

  1. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)