Etymograph

English

Hengist

Hengist comes from Old English hengest ‘stallion’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱanḱestos.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱanḱestosreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hangistaz‘horse, stallion’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hangist‘stallion’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hengest‘stallion’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1905Hengist

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱanḱestosreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hangistaz‘horse, stallion’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hangist‘stallion’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hengest‘stallion’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1905Hengist

Earliest quotation: 1905, Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, Our Island Story: “Their captains were two brothers, called Hengist and Horsa.”

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *ḱanḱestos

Today it means

name One of a pair of brothers (the other being Horsa) said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Britain in the 5th century, and to have been the first of the Jutish kings of Kent.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ḱanḱestos / Hengist

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