My word.  “Bowl” the vessel for food and drink, described loosely in the OED as wider than a cup, comes from Norse and German roots and is related to “skull”.  Well there’s our vivid startling imagery for the day!

“Bowl”, to play a game which involves rolling a ball, which is obscurely spelled “bowl”  comes from Latin through French.

So!  Two completely different words.  Shall we separate them out?  I think in this case we ought.  Here’s the one related to food:

• 1.066 Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;
• 7.093 others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls
• 8.044 all round like the edges of a great bowl,
• 8.071 The elvish folk were passing bowls from hand to hand
• 9.025 and for smaller bowls
• 13.039 out of one of Beorn’s wooden bowls!’
• 13.046 and bowls

“bowl, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

“bowl, n.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

“bowl, v.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.