View source for Boii

==Etymology and name==
From all the different names of the same Celtic people in literature and inscriptions, it is possible to abstract a [[Continental Celtic languages|Continental Celtic]] segment, {{lang|cel|boio-}}.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-Names|editor-first=Alexander|editor-last=Falileyev|publisher=Aberystwyth University|year=2007|title=Boii|url=http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2160/282/5/ContCelticPNDictionary.pdf|access-date=2 May 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090731025816/http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2160/282/5/ContCelticPNDictionary.pdf|archive-date=31 July 2009}}</ref>

There are two major derivations of this segment, both presupposing that it belongs to the family of [[Indo-European languages]]: from 'cow' and from 'warrior.' The Boii would thus be either 'the herding people' or 'the warrior people'.

The 'cow' derivation depends most immediately on the [[Old Irish]] legal term for 'outsider': ''ambue'', from [[Proto-Celtic language|Proto-Celtic]] {{lang|cel|*ambouios}} (<''*an-bouios''), 'not a cattle owner'.<ref>{{cite book|page=225|title=Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia|first=John T. |last=Koch|edition= illustrated|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2006|isbn=978-1-85109-440-0|location=Santa Barbara, California}}</ref>

In a reference to the first known historical Boii, [[Polybius]] relates<ref name=PB.2.17/> that their wealth consisted of cattle and gold, that they depended on agriculture and war, and that a man's status depended on the number of associates and assistants he had. The latter were presumably the ''{{lang|xcg|*ambouii}}'', as opposed to the man of status, who was ''{{lang|xcg|*bouios}}'', a cattle owner, and the ''{{lang|xcg|*bouii}}'' were originally a class, 'the cattle owners'.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=J.H.C. |title=Beyond the Rubicon: Romans and Gauls in Republican Italy |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=2001 |isbn=9780191541575 |pages=90–91}}</ref>
[[File:HallstattIlllyrianFootmanwithJavelins.jpg|thumb|left|Depiction of a soldier wearing a plumed pot helmet, [[Hallstatt culture]] bronze belt plaque from [[Vače]], [[Slovenia]], c. 400 BC]]
The 'warrior' derivation was adopted by the linguist [[Julius Pokorny]], who presented it as being from Indo-European {{Transliteration|ine|*bhei(ə)-}}, {{Transliteration|ine|''*bhī-''}}, 'hit'; however, not finding any Celtic names close to it (except for the Boii), he adduces examples somewhat more widely from originals further back in time: ''phohiio-s-'', a [[Venetic language|Venetic]] personal name; ''Boioi'', an [[Illyria]]n tribe; ''Boiōtoi'', a Greek tribal name (the [[Boeotia]]ns); and a few others.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|language=de|pages=117–118|encyclopedia=Indogermanisches Etymologisches Woerterbuch|first=Julius|last=Pokorny|author-link=Julius Pokorny|title=bhei(ə)-, bhī-|url=http://www.indoeuropean.nl/|publisher=University of Leiden|date=1998–2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207135952/http://www.indoeuropean.nl/|archive-date=7 February 2006}}</ref>

The same wider connections can be hypothesized for the 'cow' derivation: the Boeotians have been known for well over a century as a people of kine, which might have been parallel to the meaning of [[Italy#Etymology|Italy]] as 'land of calves'. Indo-European reconstructions can be made using {{lang|ine-x-proto|*gʷou-}} 'cow' as a basis, such as {{lang|ine-x-proto|gʷowjeh³s}};{{sfn|Birkhan|1999|page=99}} the root may itself be an imitation of the sound a cow makes.<ref>{{OEtymD|*gwou-}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2020}}

Other ancient names which appear to be derived from the name of the Boii include ''[[Boiorix]]'' ('king of the Boii', one of the chieftains of the [[Cimbri]]) and ''Boiodurum'' ('gate/fort of the Boii', modern [[Passau]]) in Germany. Their memory also survives in the modern regional names of [[Bohemia]] (''Boiohaemum''), a mixed-language form from {{lang|cel|boio-}} and [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] {{lang|gem|*haimaz}}, 'home': 'home of the Boii'. [[Bavaria]], {{lang|de|Bayern}}, is derived from the name of the ''Baiovarii'' tribe. The first component is most plausibly explained as a Germanic version of ''Boii'', while the second part is a common formational morpheme of Germanic tribal names, meaning 'dwellers', as in [[Old English]] ''-ware''.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}