Words from Proto-Germanic

Family

Proto-Germanic grew out of Proto-Indo-European.

Languages that grew out of Proto-Germanic: Germanic.

The words, A to Z

• acre

  A unit of land that still carries the memory of an open, unfenced field.

• ale

  This drink's name may hide an ancient word for bitterness itself.

• ambush

  To wait for someone, you first have to hide in the shrubbery.

• ape

  A word so old, nobody's fully sure which continent it came from.

• apple

  The world's most famous forbidden fruit didn't earn its name from the Bible at all — that was a Latin pun.

• balcony

  That railed platform outside your window once had nothing to do with views — it was all about the wooden support underneath.

• band

  The thing holding your favorite musicians together shares a root with the thing holding your shoelaces together.

• barrel

  A round wooden container that may have started out as something you simply carried.

• bear

  The animal's name may actually be a nervous euphemism — a way of not saying its real, older name out loud.

• bee

  This tiny buzzing word has been almost exactly the same sound for thousands of years.

• beer

  The word for the drink you might toast with was once just the name for the yeast that fermented it.

• beetle

  This crawling insect's name literally means "the biter."

• bench

  A humble piece of furniture that's been holding people up since Old English times.

• bid

  This little word carries two ghosts inside it — one that begs and one that offers.

• bladder

  The word for that stretchy internal balloon has been describing swellings and blisters for over a thousand years.

• bone

  The hard framework inside you shares an old root with the idea of going straight.

• brain

  The word for the thing you're thinking with has been sitting quietly in Germanic mouths for over a thousand years.

• bread

  The staple food on every table got its name from a word that once meant nothing more than a broken crumb.

• bridge

  A word for spanning gaps that itself has roots stretching back to a Proto-Indo-European word for wooden decking.

• broker

  The person who arranges your deal was once just the person who used to trade.

• bug

  Before it crawled through code, this word crawled through nightmares as a goblin haunting the dark.

• bunker

  A word for underground safety once meant nothing more menacing than a seat with storage underneath.

• burgeon

  The word for sudden, thriving growth once meant nothing grander than a little bud pushing itself into the light.

• cat

  The word for the animal curled up on your couch has traveled father than the animal itself ever needed to.

• cheek

  The part of your face that started out just meaning your jaw.

• chicken

  This barnyard word may simply be 'cock' dressed up with a diminutive ending.

• clog

  Before it meant a shoe or a stuck drain, this word may have meant a lump of wood tied to an animal's leg.

• cloud

  The word for the sky's soft drifting shapes started out describing something as solid as a boulder.

• coat

  The word we use for what we wear started out as nothing more than woolen cloth.

• cod

  A small, humble word that once meant nothing more than a bag — and somehow ended up naming a fish, a pillow, and a fool.

• cogwheel

  A simple compound that literally names the toothed wheel doing the work.

• colt

  A young horse's name once described a shape, not a species.

• corn

  This word for a hard little seed once meant almost any grain at all, before one country decided it meant just one.

• crab

  That sideways scuttle across the sand has been scratching at English for over a thousand years.

• czar

  One Roman general's name traveled through Germanic and Slavic mouths to become a title for emperors thousands of years later.

• dart

  A tiny weapon named for the leap it makes through the air.

• debris

  The scattered leftovers of something that used to hold together.

• debut

  A first appearance on stage traces back to the simple act of aiming for a target.

• deer

  The word for this graceful woodland animal once meant simply 'animal' — any animal at all.

• dough

  The slang for money in your pocket comes from the same root as the stuff rising in your bread bowl.

• doughnut

  A pastry named for two things it once literally was — dough, shaped like a nut.

• drawer

  The box you slide open for socks got its name from the simple act of pulling.

• dribble

  This word for a slow trickle is really the same drop, said over and over.

• dusk

  That soft, smoky hour before full dark started out as a word for the color of soot itself.

• earn

  Before it meant getting paid, this word meant bringing in the crops.

• earth

  The ground beneath your feet carries a name older than plowing itself.

• earthquake

  Sometimes the ground just needs to shiver, and English gave it a plain, honest name for that.

• enamel

  That glassy shine on your teeth or your grandmother's saucepan traces back to a word for melting metal.

• espionage

  The word for spying got its hissing first sound back after centuries of staying quiet.

• fee

  Long before you paid one, this word grazed in a field.

• fender

  Something that fends off harm turns out to just be a job title in disguise.

• ferry

  The word for a boat that shuttles you across water was once just a verb meaning to carry.

• fertilizer

  The 'one who does it' ending turns a verb for making things fruitful into the name of the stuff that does the work.

• feudal

  The system of lords and vassals owes its name, oddly enough, to cows.

• fiasco

  A total flop, once upon a time, was just a bottle waiting to be bought.

• finch

  A tiny songbird whose name may echo the sound of its own chirp.

• fog

  The mist rolling over a field may owe its name to the tall grass that once blurred that same landscape.

• fox

  This clever little word may once have simply meant 'the tailed one.'

• freight

  A word that once meant simply 'what a ship is fully stocked with' now carries the whole weight of the world's cargo.

• fuchsia

  This vivid pink-purple color is named after a man, not a mood or a flower itself.

• gild

  To make something shine on the outside, whether or not it shines within.

• girdle

  The band that once held everything together, from waist to word.

• glove

  This word for hand covering literally means something like 'the thing that goes with the palm.'

• gnocchi

  That little potato dumpling shares a secret bond with your knuckles.

• goat

  This barnyard word carries a much racier secondary meaning that comes straight from a common slang phrase.

• goose

  A humble barnyard bird carries one of the oldest sound-shapes in the Indo-European family.

• halberd

  A medieval polearm whose name literally describes it as a handle with a beard.

• ham

  The cut of meat on your sandwich once meant nothing more than the crook of your leg.

• happiness

  This word for deep contentment started out as a roll of the dice.

• hare

  This quick-footed animal may owe its name to the color of its coat, not its speed.

• harp

  This stringed instrument has been called almost the same name across the Germanic world for over a thousand years.

• hat

  The thing on your head may descend from an ancient root meaning simply 'to guard.'

• heath

  A stretch of open, untamed land that gave its name to the wild shrub growing across it.

• heel

  The part of your foot you stand on was once, literally, a 'little hock.'

• heron

  This tall wading bird was named for the sound it makes, not the way it looks.

• hip

  The word for the joint you swivel on has roots that literally mean 'to bend.'

• hollow

  The empty space inside something once shared a root with the idea of concealment.

• hornet

  This stinging insect's name traces back to a word for the thing on its head that isn't actually a horn at all.

• horse

  The animal we've ridden for millennia carries a name that literally means "runner."

• hound

  The word that once meant every dog alive, now saved for the ones bred to chase.

• hover

  That trembling stillness in the air — a bird stalled between beats — carries a memory of lifting.

• hut

  A tiny shelter's name traces back to the idea of covering yourself from the world.

• iceberg

  English didn't invent this word so much as borrow half of it and translate the other half.

• iron

  A metal so old its name may still carry the memory of blood.

• keel

  The backbone of a ship has a name that sailed in on Norse longships.

• kettle

  A word for a humble boiling vessel that's been passed hand to hand across half of Europe's languages.

• kilt

  That pleated garment gets its name from the act of hitching fabric up, not from any Scottish loom.

• knife

  This everyday cutting tool got its name from a pinch, not a slice.

• latch

  The little mechanism that catches a door was once a verb meaning to grab hold of something with your whole hand.

• laughter

  That burst of sound you can't fake convincingly started out as a word for shouting.

• leaf

  The thin green thing on a tree carries an old memory of being cut away.

• leap

  This word for jumping once just meant putting one foot in front of the other.

• lift

  To raise something up once meant, quite literally, to put air under it.

• liver

  The body's great chemical factory carries a name that once meant something altogether stickier.

• lock

  The thing that keeps your door shut and the curl in your hair share the same ancient root — one about bending, the other about closing.

• lodge

  A cozy cabin's name once meant nothing more than a leafy shelter.

• louse

  A tiny, unwelcome word that's been crawling through Germanic languages for thousands of years.

• love

  The tennis score of nothing and the deepest human attachment share the same four letters, though not, it turns out, the same story.

• marsh

  A soggy patch of land that's basically calling itself 'sea-ish.'

• marten

  This small woodland hunter's name actually started out describing the coat on its back, not the animal itself.

• meal

  Before it meant food on a plate, this word simply meant a fixed point in time.

• meek

  Being soft-natured wasn't always about timidity — it started out describing texture, not temperament.

• mince

  To turn something into smaller and smaller pieces, whether it's meat or your words.

• mist

  That soft grey haze hanging over a field has been called almost the same thing for over a thousand years.

• mitten

  That cozy hand-warmer might owe its name to either a cat or the concept of 'half.'

• month

  Every time you flip the calendar, you're quietly counting moons.

• moor

  A word for wild, open land that once meant something like 'sea' in disguise.

• moth

  The word for the moon's paper-winged cousin has been quietly gnawing at fabric and language alike for over a thousand years.

• mould

  One little word secretly holds three unrelated pasts — a shape, a soft growth, and the earth itself.

• mouth

  The word you're reading with right now traces back to the simple act of chewing.

• mud

  The soft, wet ground under your boots carries a name that may stretch back to an ancient word for simply being damp.

• mushroom

  This fungus got its name from the damp, mossy ground it liked to grow on.

• nail

  Your fingertips carry a word that stretches back through Old English straight to a Proto-Indo-European root for the hard tip of a finger or claw.

• nave

  This little word hides two totally unrelated pasts under one spelling.

• oat

  The grain in your morning bowl once shared its name with pus and poison.

• ohm

  A unit of electrical resistance carries the surname of the man who worked out the law behind it.

• orchard

  A patch of fruit trees carries a name that once simply meant a fenced-in place for plants.

• overwhelm

  A word for being flooded by something bigger than you can hold, built from 'over' plus a much older word for capsizing.

• owl

  This bird's name is basically a tiny echo of its own cry, shrunk down over centuries.

• ox

  A word for a beast of burden that also moonlights as a chemistry-lab shorthand.

• paltry

  Something so worthless it might as well be made of rags.

• patch

  A small word for a small piece of cloth, with an origin nobody can quite pin down.

• peacock

  This bird's name is really two words wearing one feather coat — a foreign import glued to a very plain English chicken.

• pocket

  The little bag sewn into your clothes started out as a tiny swelling word for something that puffs up.

• pouch

  A little bag with a big family tree, stretching back through French and Frankish soil to a Germanic root for a sack.

• propeller

  The thing that pushes a ship or plane forward is, quite literally, named for its job of pushing.

• quail

  To lose your nerve was once, quite literally, to suffer.

• quiche

  A savory egg pie that shares a family tree with cake, and, thanks to a sitcom, once meant something else entirely.

• quisling

  A word that turned one man's name into a permanent verdict on betrayal.

• rainbow

  The sky's most colorful trick got named for the plainest thing about it: the shape.

• raincoat

  Some words are just two useful things zipped together, and this is one of them.

• rake

  The garden tool with a row of teeth shares its deep roots with the idea of a road or a path.

• rash

  The word for acting too fast may come from a root that literally means "to run."

• rattlesnake

  This snake's name literally tells you what to listen for before you see it.

• reef

  A ridge that once meant your ribs before it meant the ocean's.

• rib

  The curve of your chest bone owes its name to an ancient word for arching cover.

• rifleman

  The soldier's title is really a tool welded to a person.

• rudder

  The thing that steers your boat was once just a word for the oar that did the job.

• rug

  That shaggy thing underfoot once just meant 'shagginess' itself.

• saga

  Before it meant a sprawling epic, this word simply meant 'something said.'

• sail

  A single Old English word once meant both the cloth and the act of moving by it.

• scurvy

  A word for flaky, scabby skin ended up naming a disease that sailors dreaded.

• seed

  The word for what you plant carries, underneath it, the ancient act of sowing itself.

• shareholder

  Someone who holds a piece of something that's been cut up for others too.

• shelf

  A flat board with a name that once meant something you'd cut or carve, not build.

• shield

  A piece of wood or metal that keeps you whole traces back to a word for cutting things apart.

• shin

  The front of your lower leg carries a name that's been walking through Germanic languages for over a thousand years.

• shirt

  The garment on your back was once just anything short enough to be cut off.

• shovel

  This tool for moving dirt is literally named after the motion you make with it.

• sidewalk

  Sometimes a word is exactly as literal as it looks, and there's a quiet satisfaction in that.

• silt

  The fine mud a river leaves behind may share its roots with the sea that seasons your food.

• sin

  The word for wrongdoing once meant the opposite — being caught telling the truth.

• sinew

  The tough cord that connects muscle to bone shares its root with the very word for nerve.

• skipper

  The person steering the boat and the butterfly darting over the meadow share a name but not a family tree.

• sleigh

  The word for a winter ride glides straight out of the same root as 'slide.'

• sloth

  Before it named a slow-moving animal, this word was just a quality — the state of being unhurried to a fault.

• sluggish

  This word for moving like a slow, heavy creature is built quite literally out of one.

• smuggle

  There's a reason this word for sneaking goods feels like it's slipping past you as you say it.

• snow

  The word for the white stuff falling from the sky has been drifting through Germanic languages for thousands of years, barely changing shape.

• soil

  This word for earth actually grew out of a scribe's mix-up between two similar-looking Latin words.

• sorrow

  A word for grief that once meant simply keeping watch over a worry.

• sow

  This barnyard word for a female pig may share deep roots with the very word "swine."

• spade

  The digging tool and the card suit share a name, but they dug their way into English from two very different directions.

• spell

  The word for magic words and the word for arranging letters both grew from the same old habit of telling a tale.

• spire

  The tapering tip of a church tower shares its ancestry with a humble blade of grass.

• spoon

  Before it scooped soup, this word meant a sliver of wood split from a log.

• sprint

  That sudden burst of speed has roots in an old word for flinching.

• steel

  This tough metal's name comes from an old Germanic word that simply meant 'staying firm.'

• stucco

  A wall finish whose name once meant nothing fancier than 'a piece' or 'a fragment.'

• summer

  The word for the warmest season may once have simply meant 'half the year.'

• swallow

  The bird and the gulp share a spelling but not a single drop of ancestry.

• swan

  The elegant white bird's name is actually a description of its voice, not its looks.

• swine

  A word that's carried the pigsty into the language of insults for over a thousand years.

• teach

  To teach someone is, at its root, simply to show them something.

• thimble

  The little metal cap on your sewing table is, quite literally, a tiny house for your thumb.

• thistle

  This prickly weed's name comes from the same ancient root as the word for jabbing something sharp.

• thorn

  A tiny word for a sharp point carries a much older idea of stiffness itself.

• thrush

  A small speckled songbird lent its name to two very different things, and nobody's quite sure why the second one borrowed it.

• thunder

  The booming sky-sound that also gave a Norse god his name.

• tie

  A simple loop of cord carries a much older pull inside it — the urge to draw things together.

• tinder

  The dry stuff that waits for a single spark to become fire.

• tithe

  This word for a tenth-part offering carries its own math right in its bones.

• tomorrow

  The day that hasn't come yet is, at its root, just another word for morning.

• tool

  The word for the thing in your hand once meant the act of getting ready to use it.

• towel

  The cloth you dry your hands with carries a very old command: get clean.

• tusk

  That long, curving tooth an elephant or walrus flaunts started out as just a plain old word for tooth.

• twig

  A tiny branch that quietly carries the ancient number two inside it.

• wage

  Your paycheck's ancestor was really just a promise someone had to keep.

• walnut

  The nut that English named not for its shell, but for the strangers who brought it.

• waltz

  A dance whose name is really just an old word for spinning around.

• warehouse

  Sometimes the most useful words are the ones built from the simplest possible parts.

• weapon

  A word so old that even its own root is a mystery.

• wheat

  The grain that fills our bread got its name from a color, not a taste.

• wine

  This word for fermented grape drink has been passed hand to hand across Europe for thousands of years without changing its core sound.

• wire

  Before it carried electricity, this word carried the idea of a twist.

• wisdom

  The state of being wise is, quite literally, built from the word 'wise' itself.

• witch

  A word for those who set things apart may itself have been set apart, born from a root meaning to consecrate or separate.

• womb

  Before it meant the place life begins, this word just meant your belly.

• wool

  This soft word has been keeping people warm in language for thousands of years, all the way back to a root shared with hair itself.

• wrestle

  To grapple with someone is, at its root, to twist them.

• yard

  The patch of ground behind your house was once, at its root, simply something fenced in.