Etymograph

English

bun

Bun comes from Middle English bunne ‘wheat cake, bun’, from Anglo-Norman bugne ‘bump on the head’, and ultimately from Old French bugne.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400bugne1
  2. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400bugne1‘bump on the head’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bunne1‘wheat cake, bun’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1996bun1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English bun
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1996, Richard Sandomir, Life for Real Dummies: A Reference for the Totally Clueless: “How 'bout I put my hot dog in your…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400bugneWiktionary, English bun
  2. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400bugneWiktionary, English bun‘bump on the head’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bunneWiktionary, English bun‘wheat cake, bun’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1996bunWiktionary, English bun. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1996, Richard Sandomir, Life for Real Dummies: A Reference for the Totally Clueless: “How 'bout I put my hot dog in your…”

Linked words

through Old French bugne

bunny, bunion

Another origin of bun

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰuH-‘to be, become’uncertain
  2. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*bonus‘foundation, base, butt’uncertain
  3. Old Irishc. 600–900bun‘the thick end of anything, base, butt, foot’uncertain
  4. Scottish Gaelicmodernbun‘bottom, butt, stump, stub’uncertain
  5. Scotsc. 1450–presentbun‘tail of a rabbit or hare’uncertain
  6. Englishtodaybun

Probably from Scots bun (‘tail of a rabbit or hare’), which is probably from Scottish Gaelic bun (‘bottom, butt, stump, stub’).

Another origin of bun

  1. Chinesemodern分fèn‘fen’
  2. Koreanmodern분bun
  3. Englishtodaybun

Today it means

noun A small bread roll that is sweetened or spiced.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “bun”. 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 / Old French bugne / bun

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