saga
SAH-guh · noun
Origin
Saga comes from Old Norse saga, meaning 'epic tale, story,' which traces back to Proto-Germanic *sagǭ ('saying, story') and ultimately to the Proto-Indo-European root *sekʷ-, meaning 'to say.'
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Journey
At its root, the word was tied simply to the act of speaking or saying something. Over time, in Old Norse, it settled into meaning a told story or epic tale — the sense English borrowed directly.
Related words
It's cognate with Old English sagu ('story, tale, statement'), Old High German saga, Icelandic saga, and German Sage. It's also a doublet of 'saw' (as in an old saying) and connects to the English verb 'say.'