Couples #1

The word “boy”

The word “boy” comes from Middle Englishboi, boye (“boy, servant”), related to other Germanic words for boy, namely East Frisianboi (“boy, young man”) and West Frisianboai (“boy”). Though the exact etymology is obscure, the English and Frisian forms probably derive from an earlier Anglo-Frisian *bō-ja (“little brother”), a diminutive of the Germanic root *bō- (“brother, male relation”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhā-, *bhāt- (“father, brother”). The root is also found in Flemishboe (“brother”), Norwegian dialectalboa (“brother”), and, through a reduplicated variant *bō-bō-, in Old Norsebófi, Dutchboef “(criminal) knave, rogue”, GermanBube (“knave, rogue, boy”). Furthermore, the word may be related to Bōia, an Anglo-Saxon personal name.


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