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Origin and history of bilge

bilge(n.)

1510s, "lowest internal part of a ship," also used of the foulness which collects there; variant of bulge "ship's hull," also "leather bag," from Old North French boulge "leather sack," from Late Latin bulga "leather sack," apparently from Gaulish bulga (see bulge (n.), and compare budget (n.)).

also from 1510s

Entries linking to bilge

budget(n.)

early 15c., bouget, "leather pouch, small bag or sack," from Old French bougette, diminutive of bouge "leather bag, wallet, pouch," from Latin bulga "leather bag," a word of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bolg "bag," Breton bolc'h "flax pod"), from PIE *bhelgh- "to swell," extended form of root *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell."

The modern financial meaning "statement of probable expenditures and revenues" (1733) is from the notion of the treasury minister keeping his fiscal plans in a wallet. Also used from late 16c. in a general sense of "a stock, store, or collection of miscellaneous items," which led to 18c. transferred sense "bundle of news," hence the use of the word as the title of some newspapers.

bulge(n.)

c. 1200, "a wallet, leather bag," from Old French bouge, boulge "wallet, pouch, leather bag," or directly from Latin bulga "leather sack," from PIE *bhelgh- "to swell," extended form of root *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell." Transferred sense of "a swelling, a rounded protuberance" is recorded by 1620s. Bilge (q.v.) might be a nautical variant. The meaning "bulging part of a military front" is from 1916, hence the World War II Battle of the Bulge (1944).

*bhel-(2)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to blow, swell," "with derivatives referring to various round objects and to the notion of tumescent masculinity" [Watkins].

It might form all or part of: bale (n.) "large bundle or package of merchandise prepared for transportation;" baleen; ball (n.1) "round object, compact spherical body;" balloon; ballot; bawd; bold; bole; boll; bollocks; bollix; boulder; boulevard; bowl (n.) "round pot or cup;" bulk; bull (n.1) "bovine male animal;" bullock; bulwark; follicle; folly; fool; foosball; full (v.) "to tread or beat cloth to cleanse or thicken it;" ithyphallic; pall-mall; phallus.

It might also be the source of: Greek phyllon "leaf," phallos "swollen penis;" Latin flos "flower," florere "to blossom, flourish," folium "leaf;" Old Prussian balsinis "cushion;" Old Norse belgr "bag, bellows;" Old English bolla "pot, cup, bowl;" Old Irish bolgaim "I swell," blath "blossom, flower," bolach "pimple," bolg "bag;" Breton bolc'h "flax pod;" Serbian buljiti "to stare, be bug-eyed;" Serbo-Croatian blazina "pillow."

An extended form of the root, *bhelgh- "to swell," forms all or part of: bellows; belly; bilge; billow; bolster; budget; bulge; Excalibur; Firbolgs.

An extended form of the root, *bhleu- "to swell, well up, overflow," forms all or part of: affluent; bloat; confluence; effluent; effluvium; efflux; fluctuate; fluent; fluid; flume; fluor; fluorescence; fluoride; fluoro-; flush (v.1) "spurt, rush out suddenly, flow with force;" fluvial; flux; influence; influenza; influx; mellifluous; phloem; reflux; superfluous.

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Trends of bilge

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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pump

Earliest English uses are in reference to a device to raise and expel bilge water from ships....

bottom

Middle English botme, from Old English botm, bodan "ground, soil, foundation, lowest or deepest part of anything," from Proto-Germanic *buthm- (source also of Old Frisian boden "soil," Old Norse botn, Dutch bodem, Old High German bodam, German Boden "ground, earth, soil"). This i

vessel

c. 1300, "container," from Old French vessel "container, receptacle, barrel; ship" (12c., Modern French vaisseau) from Late Latin vascellum "small vase or urn," also "a ship," alteration of Latin vasculum, diminutive of vas "vessel." Sense of "ship, boat" is found in English from

damage

c. 1300, "harm, injury; hurt or loss to person, character, or estate," from Old French damage, domage "loss caused by injury" (12c., Modern French dommage), from dam "damage," from Latin damnum "loss, hurt, damage" (see damn). In law (as damages) "the value in money of what

lake

"body of water surrounded by land and filling a depression or basin," early 12c., from Old French lack (12c., Modern French lac) and directly from Latin lacus "pond, pool, lake," also "basin, tank, reservoir" (related to lacuna "hole, pit"), from PIE *laku- "body of water, lake,

leak

"to let water in or out" [Johnson], late 14c., from Middle Dutch leken "to drip, to leak," or from Old Norse leka, both of them related to Old English leccan "to moisten, water, irrigate" (which did not survive into Middle English), all from Proto-Germanic *lek- "deficiency" (sou

interjection expressing various emotions (fear, surprise, pain, invocation, gladness, admiration, etc.), 1530s, from Middle English o, from Old French ô, oh or directly from Latin o, oh; a common Indo-European interjection (compare Greek ō; Old Church Slavonic and Lithuanian o; I

exclamation of surprise, etc., c. 1300; as an exclamation calling attention or demanding silence, late 14c. Used after the name of a place to which attention is called (as in Westward-Ho) it dates from 1590s, originally a cry of boatmen, etc., announcing departures for a particul

water

Old English wæter, from Proto-Germanic *watr- (source also of Old Saxon watar, Old Frisian wetir, Dutch water, Old High German wazzar, German Wasser, Old Norse vatn, Gothic wato "water"), from PIE *wod-or, suffixed form of root *wed- (1) "water; wet." To keep (one's) head above w

take

Middle English taken, from late Old English tacan "to grip, seize by force, lay hold of," from a Scandinavian source (such as Old Norse taka "take, grasp, lay hold," past tense tok, past participle tekinn; also compare Swedish ta, past participle tagit). This is reconstructed to

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