bole

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the main trunk or stem of a tree

   Moss covered the broad bole of the ancient oak.

2. 2
   noun

   a soft earthy clay, often reddish-brown, used as a pigment or as a ground beneath gilding

   The restorer applied a thin layer of red bole beneath the gold leaf.

Simplified etymology

Bole, meaning ‘the stem or trunk of a tree’, entered Middle English from Old Norse. Elements in the word ancestral to boulevard and bulwark are related to bole and work.

The tree sense comes through Middle English from Old Norse bolr ('tree trunk, torso'). The clay sense is a separate word, from Middle French and Medieval Latin bolus, ultimately Greek bolos ('clod, lump of earth'). Their identical modern spelling and pronunciation are coincidental.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary