英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

boxing (n.)[boxing 词源字典]: "fighting with the fists as a sport," 1711, verbal noun from box (v.2).[boxing etymology, boxing origin, 英语词源]
Boxing Day (n.): 1809, "first weekday after Christmas," on which postmen and others expect to receive a Christmas present, originally in reference to the custom of distributing the contents of the Christmas box, which was placed in the church for charity collections. See box (n.1). The custom is older than the phrase.
boxy (adj.): 1858, from box (n.1) + -y (2). Related: Boxiness.
boy (n.): mid-13c., boie "servant, commoner, knave, boy," of unknown origin. Possibly from Old French embuie "one fettered," from Vulgar Latin *imboiare, from Latin boia "leg iron, yoke, leather collar," from Greek boeiai dorai "ox hides." (Words for "boy" double as "servant, attendant" across the Indo-European map -- compare Italian ragazzo, French garçon, Greek pais, Middle English knave, Old Church Slavonic otroku -- and often it is difficult to say which meaning came first.)

But it also appears to be identical with East Frisian boi "young gentleman," and perhaps with Dutch boef "knave," from Middle Dutch boeve, perhaps from Middle Low German buobe. This suggests a gradational relationship to babe. For a different conjecture:
In Old English, only the proper name Boia has been recorded. ME boi meant 'churl, servant' and (rarely) 'devil.' In texts, the meaning 'male child' does not antedate 1400. ModE boy looks like a semantic blend of an onomatopoeic word for an evil spirit (*boi) and a baby word for 'brother' (*bo). [Liberman]

A noticable number of the modern words for 'boy', 'girl', and 'child' were originally colloquial nicknames, derogatory or whimsical, in part endearing, and finally commonplace. These, as is natural, are of the most diverse, and in part obscure, origin. [Buck]
Used slightingly of young men in Middle English; meaning "male negro slave or Asian personal servant of any age" attested from c. 1600. Exclamation oh, boy attested from 1892.
boyar (n.): member of a Russian aristocratic class (abolished by Peter the Great), 1590s, from Russian boyarin, perhaps from boji "struggle," or from Slavic root *bol- "great."
boycott: 1880, noun and verb, from Irish Land League ostracism of Capt. Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897), land agent of Lough-Mask in County Mayo, who refused to lower rents for his tenant farmers. Quickly adopted by newspapers in languages as far afield as Japanese (boikotto). The family name is from a place in England.
Boyd: in many cases, the family name represents Gaelic or Irish buidhe "yellow," suggesting blond hair, compare Manx name Mac Giolla Buidhe (c. 1100).
boyfriend (n.): also boy-friend, "a woman's paramour," 1909, from boy + friend (n.).
boyish (adj.): 1540s, "pertaining to boys," from boy + -ish. Meaning "puerile" is from 1570s. Related: Boyishly; boyishness.
Boyle's law (n.): named for Irish-born chemist and physicist Robert Boyle (1627-1691), who published it in 1662.
boysenberry (n.): 1935, developed early 1900s by California botanist Rudolf Boysen (1895-1950) and named for him.
bozo (n.): "muscular low-I.Q. male," c. 1910, perhaps from Spanish bozal, used in the slave trade and also to mean "one who speaks Spanish poorly." Bozo the clown was created 1940 at Capitol Records as the voice in a series of story-telling records for children ["Wall Street Journal," Oct. 31, 1983].
bra (n.): by 1923, shortening of brassiere.
Brabant: region in eastern Belgium (in Middle Ages much more extensive), from Old High German brahha "newly broken land" (see break (v.)) + bant "region."
brace (n.): early 14c., "piece of armor for the arms," also "thong, strap for fastening," from Old French brace, braz "arms," also "length measured by two arms" (12c., Modern French bras "arm, power;" brasse "fathom, armful, breaststroke"), from Latin bracchia, plural of bracchium "an arm, a forearm," from Greek brakhion "an arm" (see brachio-). Applied to various devices for fastening and tightening on notion of clasping arms. Of dogs, "a couple, a pair" from c. 1400.
brace (v.): mid-14c., "to seize, grasp," also "wrap, enshroud; tie up, fetter," from Old French bracier "to embrace," from brace "arms" (see brace (n.)). Meaning "to render firm or steady by tensing" is mid-15c., earlier in figurative sense "strengthen or comfort" (someone), early 15c., with later extension to tonics, etc. that "brace" the nerves (compare bracer "stiff drink"). Related: Braced; bracing.
bracelet (n.): mid-15c., from Old French bracelet (14c.), diminutive of bracel, from Latin bracchiale "armlet," from bracchium "an arm, a forearm" (see brace (n.)).
bracer (n.): early 14c., "piece of armor protecting the arm;" 1580s, "a clamp, bind, brace," from brace (n.). Figurative sense of "that which braces the nerves" is 1740; especially of alcoholic drinks from c. 1850. Related: Bracers.
brach (n.): "bitch hound" (archaic), mid-14c., brache, originally "hound that hunts by scent," from Old French braches "hound, hunting dog," brachez, plural of brachet, of West Germanic origin (compare Middle Dutch brache, Old High German braccho "hound, setter"), from PIE *bhrag- "to smell" (cognates: Middle High German bræhen "to smell," Latin fragrare "to smell sweetly"). Italian bracco is a Germanic loan word.
brachio-: before a vowel, brachi-, word-forming element meaning "arm," from Greek brakhion "arm," perhaps originally "upper arm," literally "shorter," and from brakhys "short" (see brief (adj.)), in contrast to the longer forearm.