section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The word book comes from the Old English bōc, which in turn likely comes from the Germanic root * bōk-, cognate to " beech ". In Slavic languages like Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian буква bukva —"letter" is cognate with "beech". In Russian, Serbian and Macedonian, the word букварь (bukvar') or буквар (bukvar) refers to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood. The Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves), originally meant "block of wood".
  
  An avid reader or collector of books is a bibliophile, or colloquially a "bookworm".