nose

Nose comes from Middle English nose, from Old English nosu, going back through Proto-West Germanic *nosu to Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s-, an ancient word for 'nose' or 'nostril'.

The word has stayed remarkably stable in both sound and meaning across its long history, referring to the same body part from its earliest reconstructed form onward.

It shares its deep root with Latin nāsus and nāris, Sanskrit nā́sā, Lithuanian nósis, and Russian нос — all pointing back to the same ancient word for this part of the face. German Nase and Dutch neus are close cousins from the same Germanic branch.