Etymology

bollard

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Today it means: A strong vertical post of timber or iron, fixed to a wharf, dock, or the deck of a ship, to which the ship's mooring lines or towlines are secured. Full definition →

Middle English bollard ← Old Norse bolr
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The story

  1. Old Norse · derived frombolr“stump, trunk”
  2. Middle English · derived frombole“tree trunk”
  3. Middle English · inherited frombollard
  4. English todaybollard

From Middle English bollard, probably from Middle English bole (“tree trunk”), from Old Norse bolr (“stump, trunk”), equivalent to bole + -ard (pejorative or diminutive suffix).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishbole all →

bole

Old Norsebolr all →

bole

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.