Etymology: Common West Germanic: Old English bil, billes neuter, sword, falchion = Old Saxon bil, the same, Old High German bill neuter (Middle High German bil neuter, modern German bille (feminine), pickaxe) probably < Germanic *biljo-(m (with West Germanic ll for lj), connected by some with Sanskrit bhil to split, cleave. Applied to various cutting weapons and implements, the relations of which to each other are not satisfactorily ascertained. (German beil, Old High German bîhal, is an entirely different word.)

Etymology: Old English bile ? masculine, not found elsewhere in Germanic; probably < Germanic *bili- , and possibly a derivative of the same root as bill n.¹

Etymology: Middle English bille, in Anglo-Norman bille, Anglo-Latin billa, an alteration of Latin bulla in its medieval sense. In classical Latin, bulla was ‘a bubble, a boss, a stud, an amulet for the neck’; whence, in medieval Latin, ‘a seal’ especially ‘the seal appended to a charter,’ etc.; thence, transferred ‘a document furnished with a seal’ e.g. a charter, a papal ‘bull’; and, by extension, any official or formal document, ‘a bill, schedule, memorandum, note, paper.’ It was in these latter senses that bulla became in England billa, bille. Being a word of common use (see Du Cange), bulla was probably pronounced with ü, passing into English y, i; though no direct evidence of this has been found.

Etymology: For beel, beeal, dialect form of bell n.⁴, bellow n.

Etymology: Shortened < Old Bill n. 2.

Etymology: < bill n.¹

Etymology: < bill n.²

Etymology: < bill n.³