English
board
Board comes from Old English bord ‘board, plank’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *burdą.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*burdą1‘board’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bord1‘board’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150bord1‘board’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500boord1
- Englishearliest quotation 1590board1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English board
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto IV: “Ere long with like againe he boorded mee, /…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*burdąWiktionary, English board‘board’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bordWiktionary, English board‘board’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150bordWiktionary, English board‘board’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500boordWiktionary, English board
- Englishearliest quotation 1590boardWiktionary, English board. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto IV: “Ere long with like againe he boorded mee, /…”
A compound of *bʰers- ‘tip, top’ + *bʰerH- ‘to pierce’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- ‘tip, top’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- ‘to pierce’
The story
The senses "food" and "council" are by metonymy from the sense "table".
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with board, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
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Today it means
noun A relatively long, wide and thin piece of any material, usually wood or similar, often for use in construction or furniture-making.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “board”. 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-Germanic *burdą / board