Etymology

bushel

bush·el
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Today it means: A dry measure, containing four pecks, eight gallons, or thirty-two quarts; equivalent in volume to approximately 0.0364 cubic meters (imperial bushel) or 0.0352 cubic meters (U.S. bushel). Full definition →

Middle English busshel ← Old French boissel ← Gaulish *bostyā
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gwost-
  2. Proto-Celtic · derived from*bostā“palm, fist”
  3. Gaulish · derived from*bostyā“handful”
  4. Old French · derived fromboissel
  5. Middle English · inherited frombusshel
  6. English todaybushel

From Middle English busshel, from Old French boissel, from boisse, a grain measure based on Gaulish *bostyā (“handful”), from Proto-Celtic *bostā (“palm, fist”) (compare Breton boz (“hollow of the hand”), Old Irish bas), from Proto-Indo-European *gwost-, *gwosdʰ- (“branch”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.