bough

English

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English bōg (“shoulder, bough”), from Proto-Germanic *bōguz (“upper arm, shoulder”) (compare German Bug (“shoulder, hock, joint”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāǵʰus (“forearm, elbow”) (compare Ancient Greek πῆχυς (pēchys, “forearm”), Old Armenian բազուկ (bazuk, “arm, forearm, bough”), Persian بازو (bāzu, “upper arm”), Sanskrit बाहु (bahus, “arm”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /baʊ/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Homophone: brow
• Rhymes: -aʊ

Noun

bough (plural boughs)

1. A firm branch of a tree.

   When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall.

Derived terms

• cut not the bough that you are standing upon

Translations

tree branch

• Armenian: ճյուղ (hy) (č̣yuġ), ոստ (hy) (ost)

  Old Armenian: ճիւղ (čiwł), ոստ (ost), կողր (kołr)

• Bulgarian: клон (bg) (klon) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: tak (nl) m
• Finnish: oksa (fi)
• French: branche (fr) f, rameau (fr) m

• Georgian: შტო (ka) (što)
• German: Ast (de) m, Zweig (de) m
• Icelandic: trjágrein (is) f, grein (is) f
• Persian: شاخه (fa) (şâxe)
• Scottish Gaelic: geug f, meanglan m, meur f, fiùran m, òganach m, faillean m
• Spanish: rama (es) f, ramo (es) m
• Swedish: trädgren c
• Udi: чӀугъ