[Etymology obscure: identical in meaning with mod.Du. bel, which, with the accompanying MDu. vb. bellen ‘to bubble up,’ is considered by Franck to have arisen out of MDu. bulle (ad. L. bulla bubble in water) under the influence of wellen to well or boil up; but in presence of the existence of the vb. and sb. in Eng. this seems doubtful.] A bubble formed in a liquid. (The ordinary word for ‘bubble’ in modern Scotch, whence occasional in English literature.)

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1483.  Cath. Angl., 27/1. A belle in þe water, bulla.

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1530.  Palsgr., 197/2. Bell of snevyll at ones nose, rovpie.

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1533.  Elyot, Cast. Helth (1541), 88. Sometyme belles or bobles.

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1576.  Woolton, Chr. Manual, 109. Mans life flieth away … as the bells which bubble up in the water.

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1743.  Davidson, Æneid, VII. 203. In Frisky Bells the Liquors dance.

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1815.  Scott, Guy M., xxvi. The twinkling of a fin, the rising of an air-bell.

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1872.  Black, Adv. Phaeton, vi. 75. Bells of air in a champagne glass.

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