An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Bock

by Friedrich Kluge

Bock, m., ‘buck, he-goat, ram,’ from the equiv. MidHG. bock (gen. bockes), OHG. boc, m.; corresponds to Du. bok, AS. bucca, E. buck, OIc. bukkr and bokkr (Goth. *bukks, *bukka, m.) Like so many names of animals (comp. e.g. Aue, Geiß), Bock too may have descended from primit. Aryan times; comp; OIr. bocc, from primit. Kelt. bucco-. Although it is not quite impossible that the whole Teut. class was borrowed from Kelt., yet it seems more probable, on account of Armen. buc, ‘lamb,’ and Zend bûza, ‘he-goat’ (Aryan primitive form bhûga), that it was only primit. akin to Kelt. Fr. bouc may be derived from Teut. or Kelt. Another OTeut. word (related to Lat. caper, Gr. κάπρος) is preserved in ModHG. Habergeiß. — Bock, ‘mistake,’ ModHG. only, seems to be a pun due to ModHG. Verstoß, ‘blunder.’ The origin of the phrase einen Bock schießen (‘to commit a blunder’) is not clear; note, however, that eine Lerche schießen is ‘to tall head over heels.’ — Bock (whence Fr. boc), for Bockbier, which first occurs in ModHG., is an abbrev. of Einbock (now Eimbocker Bier); comp. the origin of Thaler.