bowl

English has two words spelled bowl: the round vessel, inherited from Old English, and the wooden ball of the game of bowls, from French.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /bəʊl/, US /boʊl/^[4]

bowl¹ vessel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bolle, later bowle,^[1][5] inherited from Old English bolla (“pot, cup, bowl”),^[6][1] from Proto-Germanic *bullōn,^[1][6] the source also of Old Norse bolli “bowl” and Old High German bolla “blister, bud, globular vessel” (German Bolle “bulb, onion”),^[6][1][7] from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to blow, swell”).^[6][1] The Middle English bolle survives in boll, a round seed pod; the spelling -owl reflects a temporary early modern change of pronunciation and confusion with the other bowl.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English bolla, about 700, according to Barnhart;^[1] a round vessel, wider than it is deep, for liquids, about 1000 in the OED.^[8]

Semantic evolution

It was also a large drinking cup, from about 950, hence the bowl as an emblem of drinking and conviviality.^[8][6] The bowl-shaped part of a utensil, as of a spoon or pipe, is from 1386,^[8] the contents of a bowl from 1530,^[8] and a bowl-shaped natural basin from 1860.^[8] A football stadium is a bowl from 1913, at first one shaped like a bowl,^[6][8] hence the American post-season games named after stadiums.^[9][2]

Timeline

• c. 700 – a bowl.^[1]
• c. 950 – a drinking vessel.^[8]
• 1386 – part of a utensil.^[8]
• 1530 – a bowlful.^[8]
• 1913 – a stadium.^[6][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A round, open dish, wider than it is deep, for holding food or liquids.
2. The contents of such a dish: a bowl of soup.
3. A bowl-shaped part, as of a spoon or tobacco pipe.
4. A bowl-shaped hollow in the land, or a stadium or amphitheatre.
5. A post-season college football game in the United States.

Word family

• bowlful

bowl² ball

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English boule, bowle,^[1][5] borrowed from Middle French boule (“ball”),^[6][1][7] from Latin bulla (“bubble; round swelling, knob”).^[6][1][10] The verb, 1440, is from the noun or from Middle French bouler.^[1] It is related to bull “papal edict”, bullet and bulletin.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

“A sphere, globe, ball”: about 1400,^[6] probably before 1400 in Barnhart;^[1] 1413 in the OED.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The large wooden ball of the game of bowls is from the mid-15th century,^[6][8] and the game itself, bowls, from 1495.^[1] The verb, “to roll a ball along the ground”, is from 1440, the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[1][6] In cricket, “to deliver the ball to the batsman”, it is from 1755,^[6] which gave figurative phrases such as to bowl over, “to knock down”, 1849.^[6] Bowling is from about 1500,^[1] and the bowling alley from 1555.^[1] In Scots and northern dialect a bool or bowl was a boy's marble.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a ball.^[6][1]
• 1440 – verb, to roll a ball.^[1]
• 1495 – the game of bowls.^[1]
• 1555 – bowling alley.^[1]
• 1755 – in cricket.^[6]
• 1849 – bowl over.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A heavy wooden ball, weighted or flattened so that it rolls in a curve, used in the game of bowls.
2. A roll or throw of the ball in bowling.

Verb

1. To take part in a game of bowling, or to roll a ball in it.
2. In cricket, to deliver the ball towards the batsman with a straight arm.
3. To move quickly and smoothly, as if rolling.
4. To knock down; to astonish, often with over.

Word family

• bowler
• bowling
• bowls
• bowling alley
• bowling green

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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)