burgeon

Burgeon comes from Middle English burjoun, meaning 'shoot' or 'bud,' borrowed from Anglo-Norman burjun/burgeon, itself from Old French burjon. Behind that lies Old Frankish *burjō ('sprout, offshoot, descendant'), tracing back through Proto-Germanic *burjô and *burjaną ('to raise up') to the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰer-. An alternate theory instead traces Old French burjon to Vulgar Latin *burrio, from Late Latin burra ('wool, fluff'), possibly describing the fuzzy down on certain buds.

The verb form, Middle English burjounen, developed from Old French borjoner ('to bud'), showing that the word moved from naming a bud itself to describing the act of budding or sprouting forth.

The Proto-Germanic root *burjaną ('to raise up') connects burgeon to the word 'bear,' both ultimately springing from the same Proto-Indo-European root *bʰer-.