бумага

Etymology

Uncertain. Vasmer hypothesizes the existence of an earlier form, Old East Slavic *бубага (*bubaga), from which бума́га (bumága) formed through dissimilation, or perhaps a back-formation from бума́жный (bumážnyj). Believed to be ultimately from Middle Persian pmbk' (“cotton”) through the intermediary of some Mediterranean term for cotton wool and/or cloth (most probably Italian bambagia), since the first attestations of the root in the 15th and 16th centuries are mostly with a now obsolete sense, the only remnant of which in modern active vocabulary is хлопчатобума́жный (xlopčatobumážnyj, “made from cotton”). Paper was first imported into Russia from Italian states and the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century.