English

everywhere

Everywhere comes from Middle English eauerihwer, from an Old English compound of æfre ‘ever’ and ġehwǣr.

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

Earliest quotation: 1928, Charles Francis Stocking, The Identity of Douglas Bain: “Flutters of excitement were everywhere apparent.”

A compound of æfre ‘ever’ + gehwær ‘everywhere’

Proto-Indo-European *perkʷ- ‘oak’

Proto-Germanic *ferhuz ‘body’

Proto-Germanic *ferhwą ‘tree’

Proto-West Germanic *ferh ‘life’

Old English feorh ‘life, existence’

Old English æfre ‘ever’

Proto-Indo-European *kʷos ‘interrogative pronoun’

Proto-Germanic *hwaz ‘what’

Proto-Germanic *hwar ‘where, in what place’

Proto-West Germanic *hwār ‘where’

Old English hwǣr ‘where’

Old English gehwær ‘everywhere’

Every English word from Middle English eauerihwer

adv In or to all locations under discussion.

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