The internet is filled with things. Here is one of them.
Etymological Twins: Boulevard and Bulwark2024 Nov 21
One of the neat things you find in etymology (nerd alert, obviously) is when a foreign word enters the English language multiple times, each successive borrowing taking on a new meaning in English. This is called "etymological twins," a sub-type of linguistic doublets. Famous examples of etymological twins include the words chief and chef, host and guest, hotel and hostel, warranty and guarantee, goal and jail. These twin words can drift in both form and meaning, sometimes to the point where the pair becomes quite obscure, such as in entire and integer. The linked ThoughtCo blog post collects excerpts from language experts on how these twins come to be, and other forms of doublets as well. There are lists online of course of etymological twins, such as (as you'd expect) the big wiki, but those lists are not exhaustive.
So it's fun when you stumble across twins new to yourself, as I did today, with bulwark and boulevard. Both come via the Middle Dutch word bolwerc meaning "wall of a fortification," although obviously it is boulevard that has drifted further in both form and meaning. For how we got there, I'll let the Online Etymology Dictionary do the honors:
originally "top surface of a military rampart" (15c.), from a garbled attempt to adopt Middle Dutch bolwerc "wall of a fortification" into French, which at that time lacked a -w- in its alphabet.
The notion is of a promenade atop demolished city walls, which would be wider than the old streets. Originally in English with conscious echoes of Paris; in U.S., since 1929, used of multi-lane limited-access urban highways.
One of the neat things you find in etymology (nerd alert, obviously) is when a foreign word enters the English language multiple times, each successive borrowing taking on a new meaning in English. This is called "etymological twins," a sub-type of linguistic doublets. Famous examples of etymological twins include the words chief and chef, host and guest, hotel and hostel, warranty and guarantee, goal and jail. These twin words can drift in both form and meaning, sometimes to the point where the pair becomes quite obscure, such as in entire and integer. The linked ThoughtCo blog post collects excerpts from language experts on how these twins come to be, and other forms of doublets as well. There are lists online of course of etymological twins, such as (as you'd expect) the big wiki, but those lists are not exhaustive.
So it's fun when you stumble across twins new to yourself, as I did today, with bulwark and boulevard. Both come via the Middle Dutch word bolwerc meaning "wall of a fortification," although obviously it is boulevard that has drifted further in both form and meaning. For how we got there, I'll let the Online Etymology Dictionary do the honors: