Etymograph

English

bulla

Bulla comes from Latin bulla ‘bubble’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bew- ‘swelling’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bew-1‘swelling’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbulla2‘bubble’
  3. Englishtodaybulla2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin bulla
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English bulla

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bew-Wiktionary, Latin bulla‘swelling’uncertain
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEbullaWiktionary, English bulla‘bubble’
  3. EnglishtodaybullaWiktionary, English bulla

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bew- ‘swelling’

pick, pocket, pose, purse, buckle, pique, pout, billet, picot, pock, 16 more

through Latin bulla ‘bubble’

bill, bowl, boil, bulletin, budge, bolero, bouillon, bola, ebullient, 13 more

Today it means

noun A blister, vesicle, or other thin-walled cavity or lesion, as

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “bulla”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin bulla. 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-Indo-European *bew- / bulla

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