Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian bōdel , bōdil , bōl movable goods, wealth, estate, inheritance, Old Dutch bōthla (only in place names) farmstead, estate, property (Middle Dutch bōdel furniture, movable goods, matrimonial property, legacy, Dutch boedel property), Old Saxon bodal (with uncertain vowel-length) house, dwelling, estate (Middle Low German bōdel land owned, estate, property, movable goods) < a suffixed (instrumental) form of the Germanic base of booth n.; compare also Old Icelandic ból farm, house, dwelling, estate, probably < a similarly suffixed form of the related Germanic base of Old English būan to inhabit, to live, dwell, Old Icelandic búa to dwell, make ready, prepare (see big v.¹). Compare bold n.Further etymology. The same instrumental suffix is seen also in e.g. needle n., spattle n.¹, staddle n. Notes on Phonology. The Old English form boðl (in the Tanner manuscript of the translation of Bede Eccl. Hist.: see quot. eOE) apparently preserves the original consonant cluster with dental fricative (originally voiceless /θ/, subsequently voiced /ð/), possibly as a result of Anglian influence on the text. The form botl shows dissimilation (before l ) of the voiceless fricative to a voiceless plosive, a sound change characteristic of West Saxon. For forms with later metathesis of the consonant cluster and development of the voiced fricative to a voiced plosive (i.e. ðl > ld ), see bold n.; such forms are typically found in Old English sources showing Anglian influence and in verse. The phonological and geographical scope of the two above-mentioned sound changes in Old English is uncertain and disputed. Moreover, neither the attestation of the word in Middle English nor the apparent distribution of forms of the word as an early place name element entirely match the observed distribution in Old English, as they seem to show reflexes of Old English botl in Anglian areas in the east midlands and the north. Place-name and early local surname evidence also seems to show unexpected currency of a reflex of boðl in the south-west; compare e.g. the name of John Atte Bothele (Devon, 1330), which may also imply currency of the word in this area in the 14th cent. Place names have also been adduced as evidence for variation in the length of the stem vowel. A short vowel can be assumed for botl already in Old English because of the form taken by derivatives of the stem showing i-mutation, as gebytlu complex of buildings (compare y- prefix 2) and bytlan , bytlian to build (see build v.); compare also the early Middle English spelling bottle in the Ormulum. A long stem vowel has sometimes been suggested for the Germanic cognates (although the original length of the vowel is disputed), and has been invoked for English to explain the form of some northern place names, as Bodele , Cumberland (1086; now Bootle), Boltelai , Lancashire (1086; also Botle (1212); now Bootle). With the vowel of the early Middle English form buttle perhaps compare Old English gebytlu . In Old English the prefixed form gebotl (compare y- prefix) is also attested.

Etymology: Alteration (with suffix substitution: see -le suffix) of bothen n.; probably apprehended in later use as a specific sense development of bottle n.³, on account of the shape of the ovary or calyx in some of the plants so named.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman botel, botelle, Anglo-Norman and Middle French bouteille, Middle French boutelle (French bouteille ) container (second half of the 12th cent. in Old French as botele ), container for holding or storing (chiefly) liquids (14th cent. or earlier), bottleful (second half of the 15th cent. or earlier) < post-classical Latin buticula , butticula (9th cent.) < butis , buttis butt n.⁴ + -cula -cula suffix. Compare post-classical Latin botellus (frequently from 1360 in British sources), and (all < French) Spanish botella (early 16th cent.), Portuguese botelha (16th cent.; 13th cent. as †botllo ), Italian bottiglia (a1566). Compare bit n.³In Compounds 7a after bottle blonde n.