Etymograph

English

boss

Boss comes from Dutch baas ‘boss, chief, superior’, from Middle Dutch baes ‘master of a household, friend’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *baswô ‘uncle’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*baswô1‘uncle’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*baswō1reconstructed
  3. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*baso1‘uncle’reconstructed
  4. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500baes1‘master of a household’
  5. Dutchc. 1500–presentbaas1‘boss’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1913boss1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English boss
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1913, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes: “Our Boss has resigned!" said Joe Chandler slowly, impressively.…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*baswôWiktionary, English boss‘uncle’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*baswōWiktionary, English bossreconstructed
  3. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*basoWiktionary, English boss‘uncle’reconstructed
  4. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500baesWiktionary, English boss‘master of a household’
  5. Dutchc. 1500–presentbaasWiktionary, English boss‘boss’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1913bossWiktionary, English boss. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1913, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes: “Our Boss has resigned!" said Joe Chandler slowly, impressively.…”

The story

Borrowed from Dutch baas, from Middle Dutch baes (‘master of a household, friend’), from Old Dutch *baso (‘uncle, kinsman’), from Proto-West Germanic *baswō, from Proto-Germanic *baswô (‘uncle’), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *ba-, *bō- (‘father, older male relative’), source also of the English terms babe, boy, bub, bully. Later, in New Amsterdam, it began to mean a person in charge who is not a master. The video game sense is borrowed from Japanese ボス (bosu), borrowed from English boss.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰā-

baby, babe

through Proto-Germanic *bō- ‘a stem meaning father, brother, close male…’

boy, bull, bub

through Dutch baas ‘boss, chief, superior’

baas, 1 more

Another origin of boss

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bautaną‘to hit, strike, beat’reconstructed
  2. Frankishc. 250–700*bottjareconstructed
  3. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*bottia‘bump’reconstructed
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400boce‘lump, bulge, protuberance, knot’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bos
  6. Englishtodayboss

Today it means

noun One who oversees and directs the work of others; a supervisor.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “boss”. 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 *baswô / boss

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