bough
Pluralboughs
- 1A main branch of a tree, especially a large one growing directly from the trunk.
The climber tested each bough before trusting it with her weight.
Snow weighed down the broad boughs until they nearly touched the ground.
Note
The word has always meant a limb. In Middle English a bough could be the main branch of a tree, the limb of an animal or person, or anything that branches like one, such as a root or a nerve. Early spelling wavered: Shakespeare's The Tempest hangs blossom "on the Bow", and Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler (1653) ties a line "to any bow". In older texts, read bow carefully, because it may mean the branch.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts
- The limb meaning extends back to the word's Old English ancestor. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English bough could mean a main tree branch, a bodily limb, or a branching structure such as a root or nerve. en.wiktionary.org
- Bow was an older spelling of bough and can mean a tree branch in older texts. en.wiktionary.org
- Shakespeare's The Tempest contains the wording 'on the Bow', referring to a blossom hanging from a branch; Ariel sings it. en.wikisource.org
- Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler was first published in 1653. en.wikisource.org
- The first edition instructs the reader to fasten a line 'to any bow'; Piscator gives the instruction. en.wikisource.org
- Bow in an older text may denote a branch. en.wikisource.org
- 2A gallows: a structure or tree limb from which a condemned person is hanged.
"No need," he said, "long words to make, / And little heed we thy lies now, / But if she doom thee to the bough.["]
1870, William Morris, “December: The Fostering of Aslaug”Note
A grim figure of speech grown from the tree-branch meaning: the limb the condemned hung from came to stand for the gallows itself. Middle English had already stretched the word to the Christian cross, another tree of execution. William Morris revives the sense in Part IV of The Earthly Paradise (1870), in the line "if she doom thee to the bough". Today it belongs only in poetic or deliberately archaic writing.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Middle English bough could figuratively denote the Christian cross. en.wiktionary.org
- The Earthly Paradise first appeared in 1868 and continued through 1870. The quoted passage belongs to Part IV, first published in 1870; specify that part to retain the date. en.wikipedia.org
- William Morris uses the historical gallows sense in the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
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Origin
The word comes from Middle English "bough" (a branch of a tree or bush), from Old English "bōg" or "bōh" meaning a tree branch, arm, or shoulder, from Proto-Germanic "*bōguz" ("shoulder; upper arm"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European "*bʰeh₂ǵʰús" ("arm"). It is related to Dutch "boeg" and German "Bug", distantly to Ancient Greek "pêkhus" ("forearm"), and is a doublet of "bow" (the front of a ship).
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 8 facts
- Bough comes from Middle English bough, meaning a branch of a bush or tree. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old English source has the forms bōg and bōh and means branch, arm, or shoulder. en.wiktionary.org
- The word descends from Proto-Germanic *bōguz, meaning shoulder or upper arm. en.wiktionary.org
- The ultimate source is Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵʰús, meaning arm. en.wiktionary.org
- Dutch boeg is related through the same Germanic ancestor. en.wiktionary.org
- German Bug is related through the same Germanic ancestor. en.wiktionary.org
- Ancient Greek pêkhus is a distant cognate and means forearm. en.wiktionary.org
- Bough is a doublet of bow meaning the front of a ship. en.wiktionary.org