Etymograph

English

bast

Bast comes from Middle English bast ‘a cord or cable manufactured using bast’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *bast ‘rope, fibre’.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bast1‘rope, fibre’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150bæst1‘bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bast1‘a cord or cable manufactured using bast’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1912bast1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English bast
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1912, John Galsworthy: “[T]here would be seen his face, or that of…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bastWiktionary, English bast‘rope, fibre’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150bæstWiktionary, English bast‘bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bastWiktionary, English bast‘a cord or cable manufactured using bast’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1912bastWiktionary, English bast. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1912, John Galsworthy: “[T]here would be seen his face, or that of…”

The story

From Middle English bast, from Old English bæst (‘bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made’), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (compare the Swedish bast, Dutch bast, German Bast), perhaps an alteration of Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-, *bʰasḱ- (‘bundle’) (compare English basket, Middle Irish basc (‘necklace’), Latin fascis (‘bundle’), Albanian bashkë (‘tied, linked’)), though this is likely a substrate word and/or Wanderwort.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-

pack, basket, basin, 3 more

Today it means

noun Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “bast”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *bast / bast

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