'bareboat' originates from English, specifically a compound of 'bare' and 'boat', where 'bare' came from Old English 'bær' meaning 'naked, exposed' and 'boat' came from Old English 'bāt' meaning 'small vessel'.

'bare' (from Old English 'bær') and 'boat' (from Old English 'bāt') existed separately in Old English; the compound form 'bare boat' appeared in nautical usage to mean a boat without equipment or crew and later crystallized as the single-word modern English 'bareboat' in maritime law and chartering vocabulary in the 19th–20th centuries.

Initially it simply described a 'boat without equipment or crew'; over time the term specialized to denote a specific type of charter arrangement (a bareboat charter) in which the charterer assumes responsibility for crewing and operation.