Let us compare etymologies. Barke (Middle English) meaning boat, comes from Middle French barque out of the Latin barica, itself derived from Ancient Greek βάρις (báris), and before that possibly the Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ (baare) and ultimately Egyptian bꜣjr - what a long, strange linguistic sailing trip.
Bark is the outer covering of a tree's trunk (can also apply to vines and some shrubs), those layers that lie outside the vascular cambium (or main growth tissue in the plant's stem). Some tree barks yield spices and flavourings, some are a source of medicines (including poisons and hallucinogens), and bark has been/is used in the manufacture of clothing and ropes - as well as boats.
 |
| Egyptian wooden boat (approx. 2,000 BC - a reconstruction) |
However, boats existed way before the Egyptians sailed the Nile from 3,000 BC onwards, and certainly before there was written language to name them. Fragments of earlier boats have been found from Scandinavia through the Mediterranean and Middle-East to Indo-China, dating back 8,000 or 9,000 years. Of course the problem is that the earliest boats were made of wood and prone to decay over millennia. But the tools that were used to make them were more durable and the discovery of such tools (in dusty Crete for example) suggests that boats may have been around as long ago as 100,000 years.
What tempted me to put this particular interpretation on the theme was the obvious similarity between that alternative word for a boat and the one describing the outer surface of a tree. I wondered if there was any real connection between the two, given that the earliest crude boats were made from hollowed-out tree-trunks, and then slightly more sophisticated branch frames covered in bark.
 |
| Chinese hollowed-out log boat (approx 8,000 BC - actual remains) |
Then what about the origins of that word? Disappointment, it seems. Bark stems from the Old English barc and/or Old Norse bǫrkr and both in all likelihood are derived from the proto-Indo-European word for birch: bʰerHǵós. In conclusion therefore, it appears I was barking up the wrong tree in divining etymologies and hoping to arrive at a common root. At least it's been instructive (I hope you'll agree).
I'll dust myself down and move on, but before I do, here's the latest from the imaginarium. It's hardly out of the top drawer and is not necessarily the finished article, for it may merit improvement with a bit more fettling and whittling, but for now...
In The Beginning Was The Log
Who first saw a tree-trunk
floating
and thought boat?
Maybe a log bridge
tumbling
into its stream one day
cut off passage
to parochial shores?
In that momentous fall
the future changed
commencing
a liberating voyage
into further and beyond
through millennia of
sailing.
Odysseys down salty routes
acquiring oars, sprouting sails,
incorporating smokestacks,
evolving turbines,
rising
audacious from the waves
on quivering wings
embarking
for the nearest moon
then a navigable seaway
of planets and stars before
bobbing
off into the ineffable.
Thanks for reading, S ;-)