boll
UK[bəʊl]US[boʊl]
n
The rounded seed capsule of plants such as cotton or flax.
Etymology
The word 'boll' entered English from Middle Dutch, carrying the core meaning of a round object. This Dutch term is part of a wider Germanic family of words sharing the concept of roundness or swelling, including the Old English ancestor of the modern word 'bowl'. The semantic journey is a straightforward specialization: from a general term for any round object or bud in its Germanic origins, it became specifically applied in agricultural English to the distinctive rounded seed pod of certain plants, most notably cotton. This evolution reflects the word's adaptation to describe a key feature in the cultivation of important fiber crops.
Analysis
The word is a simplex. It is a loanword from Middle Dutch bolle, meaning a rounded object or bud, which is of Germanic origin and related to Old English bolla (bowl, drinking vessel).
Examples
The cotton fields were white with fluffy fibers bursting from the ripe bolls.
A boll weevil is a beetle that infests and damages cotton bolls.
The farmer inspected the flax plants, checking for the development of the bolls.