Etymograph

English

enough

Enough comes from Old English ġenōg ‘enough, sufficient’, from Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz ‘enough’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*ganōgaz‘enough, sufficient’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*ganōgreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġenōg‘enough, sufficient’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ynogh
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1598–1599enough

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*ganōgaz‘enough, sufficient’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*ganōgreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġenōg‘enough, sufficient’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ynogh
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1598–1599enough

Earliest quotation: 1598–1599, Much Adoe about Nothing: “I know you well enough; you are Signior Antonio.”

The story

From Middle English ynogh, from Old English ġenōg (‘enough’), from Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz (‘enough’) (compare Scots eneuch, West Frisian genôch, Dutch genoeg, German genug, Low German (ge)noog, Danish nok, Swedish nog, Icelandic nógur), from *ganuganą 'to suffice' (compare Old English ġeneah), or from *ga- + an unattested *nōgaz, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₂nó(n)ḱe (‘he has reached, attained’), perfective of *h₂neḱ- (‘to reach’) (compare Old Irish tánaic (‘he arrived’), Latin nancisci (‘to get’), Albanian kënaq (‘to please, satisfy’)).

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz

Today it means

det Used before a noun in the manner of words like some, a bit of, and so on.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *ganōgaz / enough

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