Etymologically
Log in

bois

Etymology and origin of the French word bois

History Permalink
Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1100, Chanson de Roland
Inherited from
Latin boscus
Ultimate origin
Frankish (*busk)

Pronunciation

Forms

bois m (countable and uncountable, invariable)[1] Old French bos, bosc, and bois, Middle French boys.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Medieval Latin boscus (“wooded land”), recorded from 704 in a charter of Childeric III, and in the plural “bosci”, which gave “bois” (“boscus” would have given “bos”).[2][3][4][1] The Medieval Latin word is borrowed from Frankish *busk (“bush, thicket”), which can be deduced from Old High German busc and Old Saxon busc; compare German Busch and English bush.[2][3][1][5] The age of the word in Germanic rules out a borrowing the other way, and its spread through Gallo-Romance, Catalonia (878) and northern Italy (895) favours a Frankish source.[2] Pierre Guiraud did not rule out a connection with Latin buxus (“box tree”).[6]

Cognate with Old Occitan bosc, Italian bosco and Spanish bosque.[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), meaning a place covered with trees.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old French bois stood beside selve, from Latin silva, which it eliminated; it remains in competition with forêt, which in the Middle Ages was land reserved for lordly hunting.[2][3] Early on it took the sense “wood, the substance of trees”, ousting Old French leigne from Latin ligna; worked wood is recorded from 1243 (en bosc).[3][2] By metonymy it also named a deer's antlers, woodwind instruments and woodcuts.[1][4]

In Canadian French le bois may be a large forest, as in coureur de bois, and on n'est pas sorti du bois means “we're not out of the woods yet”.[2] Derivatives include boiser (1671), boiserie (about 1700), bûcheron (1550, from boscheron) and buisson (12th century).[3]

Timeline

  • 704 – Boscus in a Merovingian charter.[2]
  • c. 1100 – In the Chanson de Roland.[6]
  • 12th century – Buisson.[3]
  • 1243 – En bosc “made of wood”.[2]
  • 13th century – Boscheron, later bûcheron.[3]
  • 1671 – Boiser.[3]
  • 1869 – Sous-bois.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A wood, small forest: se promener dans les bois.[4][1]
  2. Wood as a material: une table en bois, bois de chauffage.[1]
  3. A kind of wood: un bois précieux.[1]
  4. Bois (plural): the antlers of a deer.[4][1]
  5. (music) The woodwind instruments.[1]
  6. (art) A woodcut, (golf) a wood.[1]
  7. Toucher du bois: to touch wood, langue de bois: political cant, gueule de bois: a hangover.[1]

Word family

  • hautbois
  • sous-bois
  • boiser
  • boiserie
  • bûcheron
  • buisson

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 192b
  6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Bois.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/bois. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·