Etymology: Common Germanic: Old English boga, corresponding to Old Frisian boga, Old Saxon bogo (Middle Dutch booghe, Dutch boog), Old High German bogo (Middle High German boge, modern German bogen), Old Norse bogi (Swedish båge, Danish bue) < Germanic *bugon-, < stem bug- of beugan, to bend.

Etymology: < bow v.¹ 9.

Etymology: Recorded only since 1600. Corresponding in form and sense to Low German bûg , Dutch boeg , Danish boug , bov , Swedish bog , all with senses ‘shoulder of man or beast’, and ‘bow of a ship’. The older Germanic forms were Old Norse bóg-r , Old High German buog (Middle High German buoc ), Middle Dutch boech ‘shoulder of man or beast’, Old English bóg , bóh ‘shoulder, upper arm’, and ‘bough of a tree’ < Germanic *bôgu-z . corresponding to Greek πᾶχυς , πῆχυς , and Sanskrit bāhu-s ‘arm’. Bow is thus in origin the same word as bough n., but while the latter has come down direct < Old English in one of the Old English senses, bow has been adopted at a later time from Low German, Dutch, or Danish, in the special sense of the ‘shoulders’ of a boat or ship, developed in the maritime speech of one or other of these, but not known to Old English or Middle English Bough and bow have thus widely diverged, the earlier meaning of ‘shoulder, arm’, not being retained by either. (Not related to bow n.¹, nor to bow v.¹, though probably now associated with the latter in the popular etymological consciousness, as appears from most attempts to explain it.)

Etymology: < Old Norse bú farming, a farm, farm stock, stock of cattle on a farm, corresponding to Old English, Old Saxon bû dwelling, habitation, Old High German bû dwelling, culture, tillage, building (Middle High German bû, bou, modern German bau, Dutch bouw tillage, building) < Germanic *bôwo-m, < bū-Latin ‘colĕre’. Only Old Norse had the sense ‘live-stock, cattle’, whence the northern English and Scots word.

Etymology: probably /buː/ from an earlier bulle or boule (papal) bull (compare fow , fou' = full ; pow , pou' = pull , pool , etc.): for sense compare French ‘bulles provisions d'un bénéfice; les bulles d'un évêché, d'une abbaye’ (Littré). See bull n.²

Etymology: < the name of the Bow China Manufactory at Stratford-le-Bow in Essex (now Greater London).

Etymology: Originally a strong verb: Old English búgan (past tense béah , bugon , participle bogen ), corresponding to Old Saxon *bûgan , (Middle Dutch bûghen , Middle Low German bûgen , Dutch buigen ); also with different vowel in the present stem, Old High German biogan (Middle High German and modern German biegen ), Old Norse *bjúga (past tense plural bugum , participle boginn ), Gothic biugan (past tense baug , bugum , participle bugans ) < Germanic stem *beug- < root bug- , apparently identical with Sanskrit bhuj- to bow, bend, Latin fugere , Greek ϕέυγειν to flee; although the expected Germanic form corresponding to these would be buk- . The causative of this was Germanic baugjan , Old English bíegan , býgan , weak verb: see bey v. In early Middle English there was some confusion of forms in writing, due to the ambiguous use of u for both Old English ú, and French u = ü, Old English y. As early as the 13th cent. bow began to usurp the sense of bey, which became obsolete in the 14th cent.; and coincidently with this extension of sense, bow began to take a weak past tense and past participle (This is one of several verbs in which the Low German languages (Old English, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Nether-Frankish) have û against the iu of Gothic, Old Norse jú, Old High German io.)