Boke
/boʊk/noun
An archaic or dialectal spelling of “book,” especially in Middle English and Scots.
Did you know?Early Germanic peoples associated beechwood with writing because smooth beech tablets could be carved with runes, linking the words “book” and “beech.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bʰeh₂ǵos
“Beech tree”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*bōks
“Beech; a beechwood tablet used for writing”
Old English
OE
bōc
“Book, writing tablet, written document”
Middle English
ME
bok / boke
“Book; written text or manuscript”
15th–17th Century
English
boke
“Archaic or dialectal spelling of “book””
Modern English
English
boke
“Rare historical or dialectal form of “book””