English
bast
Bast comes from Middle English bast ‘a cord or cable manufactured using bast’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *bast ‘rope, fibre’.
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bast‘rope, fibre’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150bæst‘bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bast‘a cord or cable manufactured using bast’
- Englishearliest quotation 1912same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bast‘rope, fibre’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150bæst‘bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bast‘a cord or cable manufactured using bast’
- Englishearliest quotation 1912same form
Earliest quotation: 1912, John Galsworthy: “[T]here would be seen his face, or that of…”
The story
From Middle English bast, from Old English bæst (‘bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made’), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (compare the Swedish bast, Dutch bast, German Bast), perhaps an alteration of Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-, *bʰasḱ- (‘bundle’) (compare English basket, Middle Irish basc (‘necklace’), Latin fascis (‘bundle’), Albanian bashkë (‘tied, linked’)), though this is likely a substrate word and/or Wanderwort.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-
Today it means
noun Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *bast / bast