boat的词源

英文词源

boat: boat: [OE] In origin, the word boat seems to be restricted to northern parts of Europe: Old English bāt and Old Norse beit are the only early examples (German boot was borrowed from them, and French bateau comes from the English word). They point to a common Germanic origin in *bait-. It has been speculated that this may be related to bitt ‘post for fastening ship’s cables’. If true, this could mean that boat originally referred to one or other of the structural members of a wooden vessel.
boat (n.): Old English bat "boat, ship, vessel," from Proto-Germanic *bait- (cognates: Old Norse batr, Dutch boot, German Boot), possibly from PIE root *bheid- "to split" (see fissure) if the notion is of making a boat by hollowing out a tree trunk; or it may be an extension of the name for some part of a ship. French bateau "boat" is from Old English or Norse. Spanish batel, Italian battello, Medieval Latin batellus likewise probably are from Germanic.