twig

English twig comes from Old English twigg, from Proto-West Germanic *twiggu, meaning a small twig or shoot, itself apparently a diminutive of *twig, meaning branch. That in turn traces back to Proto-Germanic *twīgą and Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁, the root behind 'two.'

The word narrowed from a general term for a branch into the specific, smaller sense of a slender offshoot, likely through its diminutive form in Proto-West Germanic.

It shares its Proto-Germanic root with German Zweig and Dutch twijg, both meaning branch, and ultimately with the English word 'two,' since a twig was originally something that forked or divided.