bullet的词源

英文词源

bullet

bullet: [16] Etymologically, a bullet is a ‘little ball’. It comes from French boulette, a diminutive form of boule ‘ball’, from which English also gets bowl, as in the game of bowls. It originally meant ‘cannon-ball’ as well as ‘rifle or pistol projectile’, but this sense had effectively died out by the mid-18th century.
=> bowl

bullet (n.)

1550s, from Middle French boulette "cannonball, small ball," diminutive of boule "a ball" (13c.), from Latin bulla "round thing, knob" (see bull (n.2)). Earliest version of bite the bullet recorded 1891, probably with a sense of giving someone a soft lead bullet to clench in the teeth during a painful operation.

中文词源

bullet：子弹

bull, 词源同ball. -et, 小词后缀。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：bullet 词源，bullet 含义。

bullet：子弹

词根词缀： bull(ball¹球的变体) + -et小 → 小球,旧时枪炮子弹为小球

同源词：ball¹, balloon, ballot, bowl