bush

Note: The Germanic pedigree of *buska- is relatively meager for the early periods. Old English *busc is perhaps evident in the place name Wardebusc, Veardebusc (modern Warboys in Huntingdonshire), attested in tenth-century charters, though Ekwall (Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names) took it as of Scandinavian origin. The Old High German forms are attested only in glosses from the twelfth century or later. An earlier opinion, propounded in Skeat and the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, was that the Germanic words were borrowed from "Late Latin"; however, Latin boscus "wood, woodland"—the form buscus is less frequent—is not attested before the early eighth century. The genuine depth of Germanic attestation for *buska- and congeners was thoroughly explicated by Johannes Hubschmied in "Romanisch-germanische Wortprobleme I. Zur Geschichte von bois, bûche (mit Berücksichtigung der Ortsnamen)," Vox Romanica, Band 29 (1970), pp. 82-122, 283-302. There now seems little question that the etymon is Germanic, and that corresponding Romance words are borrowed from Germanic. Note that beside *busk- a form *bosk- is evident in Middle English and elsewhere, especially Romance. Hubschmied explains *busk- as an outcome in an original u-stem, with *bosk- resulting from lowering before a non-high vowel in the next syllable; alternatively, the -u- could simply result from failure of lowering. Also widespread in Middle English, especially east midland and northern, and in early Scots, are forms without palatalized sk, as bosk(e), buske (compare bosky), which have been attributed both to Old Norse and to Anglo-French bosc. See also boiserie, boscage, bosquet and bouquet, and compare ambush entry 1.