entry
bulb
/bʌlb/Rounded plant organ or swollen object
From Greek bulb (Round swelling or bulbous plant organ).
from Greek bolbos "plant with round swelling on underground stem." It was extended 1660s to "spherical underground part...
from Latin bulbus "bulb, bulbous root, onion,"
+1 more sourcefrom French bulbe (15c.)
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English bulb, bolbe
from French bulbe (15c.)
+1 more sourcefrom French bulbe (15c.)
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from Greek bolbos "plant with round swelling on underground stem." It was extended 1660s to "spherical underground part...
from Latin bulbus "bulb, bulbous root, onion,"
+1 more sourcefrom French bulbe (15c.)
+1 more sourcefrom Middle English bulb, bolbe
from French bulbe (15c.)
+1 more sourcefrom French bulbe (15c.)
+1 more sourceLong before anyone screwed a light bulb into a socket, a bulb was simply an onion—or something that looked uncannily like one underground. Ancient Greek called this swelling bolbos (βολβός), a word that passed into Latin as bulbus and then into French as bulbe before reaching English in the 1560s. Gardeners later stretched the word from onions to the compact underground food stores of tulips and lilies: a plant packed into a little edible-looking suitcase, waiting out winter. Around 1800, the shape itself became the important clue, so a rounded swelling in a glass tube could also be a bulb—and eventually so could Edison’s glowing invention. The same visual logic still links a tulip bulb, a thermometer bulb, and a light bulb: each is nature’s or engineering’s small reservoir with a fat middle.
The Story
Long before anyone screwed a light bulb into a socket, a bulb was simply an onion—or something that looked uncannily like one underground. Ancient Greek called this swelling bolbos (βολβός), a word that passed into Latin as bulbus and then into French as bulbe before reaching English in the 1560s. Gardeners later stretched the word from onions to the compact underground food stores of tulips and lilies: a plant packed into a little edible-looking suitcase, waiting out winter. Around 1800, the shape itself became the important clue, so a rounded swelling in a glass tube could also be a bulb—and eventually so could Edison’s glowing invention. The same visual logic still links a tulip bulb, a thermometer bulb, and a light bulb: each is nature’s or engineering’s small reservoir with a fat middle.
Modern Usage
A dimwit or well-meaning but unreliable person
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary entries describing a foolish or unreliable person
Kin & Kindred
From 'bulb'·Round swelling or bulbous plant organ
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary