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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL4 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Bolt”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
BoltEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
* As an English surname, from the noun bolt, for a maker of bolts, or a nickname for a short and heavy person. * Also as an English surname, variant of Bold. * As a Dutch, north/Low German and Danish surname, from the old Germanic name Baldo, derived from the adjective bold and related to the above. Compare Boldt.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗boltEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰóldos? Proto-Germanic *bultaz Proto-West Germanic *bolt Old English bolt Middle English bolt English bolt From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- (“to knock, strike”). Compare Lithuanian beldu (“I knock”), baldas (“pole for striking”). Akin to Dutch and West Frisian bout, German Bolz or Bolzen, Danish bolt, Swedish bult, Icelandic bolti. The association of thunder and lightning with 'bolts' is found back into prehistory in many cultures, at least in Eurasia. It comes from the long-standing widespread belief that lightning was caused by bolts, darts, or stones hurtling down from the sky to the earth. This belief was still regarded as commonplace until at least 1929.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗boltEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰóldos? Proto-Germanic *bultaz Proto-West Germanic *bolt Old English bolt Middle English bolt English bolt From Middle English bolt, from Old English bolt, from Proto-West Germanic *bolt, from Proto-Germanic *bultaz, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeld- (“to knock, strike”). Compare Lithuanian beldu (“I knock”), baldas (“pole for striking”). Akin to Dutch and West Frisian bout, German Bolz or Bolzen, Danish bolt, Swedish bult, Icelandic bolti. The association of thunder and lightning with 'bolts' is found back into prehistory in many cultures, at least in Eurasia. It comes from the long-standing widespread belief that lightning was caused by bolts, darts, or stones hurtling down from the sky to the earth. This belief was still regarded as commonplace until at least 1929.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗boltEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
From Middle English bulten, from Anglo-Norman buleter, Old French bulter (modern French bluter), from a Germanic source originally meaning "bag, pouch" cognate with Middle High German biuteln (“to sift”), from Proto-Germanic *buzdô (“beetle, grub, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰūs- (“to move quickly”). Cognate with Dutch buidel.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
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Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 2024MODERN ENTRY POINTS
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CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 1
Omniscient was already an all-knowing word before English borrowed it.
The structure belongs to learned Latin: omni- plus the knowing family. English did not freshly bolt omni onto the modern noun science.
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