Etymograph

English

boil

Boil comes from Middle English bile ‘boil, tumor’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *būlijō.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*būlijō1reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150bȳl1‘boil, swelling’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bile1‘boil, tumor’
  4. Englishtodayboil1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English boil

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*būlijōWiktionary, English boilreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150bȳlWiktionary, English boil‘boil, swelling’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bileWiktionary, English boil‘boil, tumor’
  4. EnglishtodayboilWiktionary, English boil

The story

The expected form is bile; the rounding of the diphthong could be caused by the initial b- and/or by association with etymology 2.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *būlijō

Another origin of boil

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰel-‘to sound’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbulla‘bubble’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbulliō‘to bubble’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400boillir
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500boillen‘to boil’
  6. Englishtodayboil

Today it means

noun A localized accumulation of pus in the skin, resulting from infection.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “boil”. 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 *būlijō / boil

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