Etymologically
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bolster

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbɒlstə/, /ˈbəʊlstə/[1]
  • US: /ˈboʊlstɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bolster,[1][2] inherited from Old English bolster (“bolster, pillow, cushion”),[3][4][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *bulstraz.[7][8] Its cognates are Dutch bolster, Old High German bolstar, Polster in German and Old Norse bolstr.[4][6][9][7] Kroonen and Orel derive the Germanic noun from the root found in belly and bellows, meaning "to swell",[7][8][10] and Etymonline from Proto-Indo-European *bhelgh- (“to swell”);[3][11] so the word first meant something stuffed so that it swells.[3][10] The verb is from the noun.[4][6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long stuffed pillow for the head: Old English, in Beowulf, about 725 in Barnhart's dating.[4][6] Bosworth–Toller quotes the Old English Bede, in which a man lays his head on the bolster and sleeps a little.[5]

Semantic evolution

From the head pillow the word passed to any cushion or pad to lean or sit on (about 1275),[4] and in the 15th century to various parts that support others,[3] among them surgical pads, a saddle's padded ridge and padding in clothes, all now obsolete, and later parts of machinery and sailors' tarred cushions that keep the stays from chafing.[4] The verb is implied in bolstering (1451) and bolstered (about 1460),[6] where Etymonline notes a sense "to make bulge", first of a woman's breasts.[3] Its figurative sense, to prop up or uphold, is recorded from 1508,[4][6] and was often used of an unworthy cause, to aid and abet wrongdoers.[3][4] Among schoolboys from 1870 it also meant to beat with bolsters, as in a pillow fight.[4] In Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire dialect the word was also written bowster, and a bolster-head was a silly, soft-headed person.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – a long pillow for the head, in Beowulf.[6][4]
  • c. 1275 – a cushion or pad for leaning or sitting on.[4]
  • 1451 – the verb implied in bolstering.[6]
  • 1508 – verb, figuratively, to prop up or uphold.[4][6]
  • 1530 – to pad out a garment or part of the body.[4]
  • 1583 – to support with a bolster.[4]
  • 1769 – nautical, cushions of tarred canvas protecting the stays.[4]
  • 1870 – to beat with bolsters, among schoolboys.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A long, narrow pillow or cushion, often laid across the head of a bed.[13][14][4]
  2. Any pad or padded support.[13][14]
  3. (architecture) A short horizontal timber on top of a post, supporting a beam.[13]

Verb

  1. To support or reinforce; to strengthen, often with up: The good news bolstered the team's spirits.[13][14][4]
  2. To prop up with a pillow or cushion.[13][14]
  3. To add padding to.[13][4]

Word family

  • bolsterer
  • unbolster

Usage notes

A separate noun bolster, a heavy chisel used by bricklayers for cutting bricks, is recorded from 1908 and is probably an alteration of boaster, another mason's chisel.[4][15]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ 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)
  13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press