boom

boom¹ tree

Pronunciation

• /boːm/^[1]

Forms

boom m (plural bomen, diminutive boompje n or boomken n)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the tree is inherited from Middle Dutch boom, inherited from Old Dutch bōm, inherited from Proto-Germanic *bauma-.^[2][3][1] The same word is Old Saxon bōm, Old High German boum (modern German Baum), Old Frisian bām and Old English bēam, whose modern form English beam means a timber.^[2][4][5] North and East Germanic have forms that do not go back to the same base: Old Norse baðmr and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌲𐌼𐍃 (bagms), both “tree”.^[2][6]

How the three fit together is disputed.^[2][4] One attempt starts from a single base Proto-Indo-European *bʰouh₂mo- with special sound developments in each branch.^[2] Kluge's 21st edition proposed a base *baugma- from the verb buigen, the tree being “the one that bends”, which the EWN thinks fits the suffix badly and calls very uncertain.^[2] Older dictionaries derive the West Germanic forms from the root of bouwen “to grow”, but the Gothic and Norse forms are the obstacle.^[5][4][7] The EWN itself prefers a European substrate word, for which Kuiper reconstructed *babma-.^[2] Kroonen reconstructs *bagma-, originally “beam” rather than “tree”, and relates it to Proto-Germanic *bōgu- “shoulder, upper arm” (compare English bough), from *bʰh₂ǵʰ-mo-; in West Germanic the /g/ became /w/ next to the labials.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest trace is the Old Dutch compound ortobaum “garden tree” in the 8th-century Lex Salica, then bom gard “orchard” in the second half of the 10th century and boum around 1100.^[2][8] An Egmond text of about 1100 speaks of the aromatic trees and all kinds of trees that grow on Lebanon.^[3] Middle Dutch bóm is found in 1220–1240, and a Limburg glossary of 1240 uses boum for Latin arbor and robur.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Already in Middle Dutch boom also meant a long, rounded piece of wood: a tree trunk, a weaver's beam and a barrier closing a road or harbour (slagboom), and by extension the toll levied at such a barrier.^[9][10] A felled trunk could serve as a beacon, a ram or a pile, and a tree often served as a gallows, hence met iemand te boom willen “to want to hang someone” (1642).^[7] Dutch went further than the other Germanic languages in using the word for the mast of a ship and for the boom of a sail.^[11][12]

This nautical sense spread with Dutch shipping: English boom, first “long pole” (1640s) and then “spar extending the foot of a sail” (1660s), came from Dutch through Scots, and Danish, Norwegian and Swedish bom, Estonian poom and French bôme are also from Dutch or Low German.^[13][11][12] In the sense “barrier” the word was borrowed into Russian.^[4] Afrikaans boom, Berbice Dutch bom and Negerhollands bom continue the Dutch word.^[1]

Proverbs include de appel valt niet ver van de boom “children take after their parents”, which Stoett traces through 16th- and 17th-century variants, and the curse je kunt de boom in! “get lost!”.^[14][15][16]

Timeline

• 701–800 – Old Dutch ortobaum “garden tree” appears in the Lex Salica.^[2][8]
• 950–1000 – The compound bom gard “orchard” is recorded.^[2]
• c. 1100 – Boum is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1220–1240 – Middle Dutch bóm is first recorded.^[2]
• 1240 – A Limburg glossary renders Latin arbor as boum.^[9]
• 1340 – The proverb niet en valt die boem ten iersten slage “the tree does not fall at the first blow” is recorded.^[10]
• 1640s – English borrows boom “long pole”.^[13]
• 1642 – Met iemand te boom willen “to want to hang someone” is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tree, a woody plant with a single stem that branches some way above the ground.^[15][7][1]
2. A long, round piece of wood or metal, often a turning part of a construction: a beam, pole, boom or barrier.^[15][1][10]
3. A tree diagram.^[15]

Word family

• boomgaard
• geboomte
• bomen
• boomstam
• boomschors
• boomstronk
• boomgrens
• slagboom
• hefboom
• kerstboom
• pijnboom
• vaarboom

boom² economic boom

Etymology tree of boom²

inherited borrowed derived

English boom

Dutch boom

Pronunciation

• /buːm/^[1]

Forms

boom m (plural booms, diminutive boompje n)^[1]

Etymology

The word for an economic boom is borrowed from English boom, first recorded in Dutch in 1912.^[8][17][4] It began as a stock-exchange term for a sudden rise in prices and was then used for a general upswing in business.^[4] De Vries takes the English noun to be the same word as English boom “the sound of waves or of a gun going off”, comparable to Dutch bommen.^[4] Etymonline records the English sense from 1873 and leaves open whether it comes from the nautical boom, a ship “booming” in full sail, or from the sound, as a sudden burst.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Van der Sijs dates the sense “sudden rise” to 1912.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From prices and business the word spread to any sudden increase, in the demand for an article or in the number of births.^[15][4] It is pronounced with the English vowel, /buːm/, unlike boom “tree”, and has the plural booms.^[1]

Timeline

• 1873 – English boom “sudden increase in commercial activity” is recorded.^[13]
• 1912 – Dutch boom “sudden rise” is first recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A boom, a sudden rise or rapid growth, as of demand, prices or the birth rate.^[15][1]