Bollard is the somewhat comical term for those small posts used for traffic control on the sides of the road, or for the pole that a ship is tied to. The traffic-related definition originated in the 1940s due to its similarity to the nautical meaning, which itself came about in the 1840s from the botanical term bole, meaning “tree trunk”, and the suffix –ard, which is primarily used as a derogatory suffix (think drunkard, coward, bastard). So it’s like a sad excuse for a tree trunk, I suppose? Bole was borrowed in the early fourteenth century from Old Norse bolr, which originated from Proto-Germanic bulas (both with the same meaning). Ultimately, it all traces back to the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction bhel, which meant “to swell” and is also the origin of words like ball, balloon, bull, and bollocks.
