Etymograph

English

dear

Dear comes from Old English dēore ‘of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved’, from Proto-West Germanic *diurī ‘valuable, precious’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*diurijaz‘dear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*diurī‘valuable’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēore‘of great value or excellence’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dere
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598dear

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*diurijaz‘dear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*diurī‘valuable’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēore‘of great value or excellence’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dere
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598dear

Earliest quotation: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “There's more depends on this than on the value.…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- ‘to burn’

day, dawn, fever, daw, febrile, foment, 20 more

through Proto-Germanic *diurijaz ‘dear, precious’

darling, 2 more

through Middle English dere

dere

Another origin of dear

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰwes-‘to breathe’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰews-ó-sreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*deuzaz‘wild, fierce, bold’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēor
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dere‘fierce, severe, hard, deadly’
  6. Englishtodaydear

Today it means

adj High in price; expensive.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *diurijaz / dear

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