Etymograph

English

flight

Flight comes from Middle English flight, from Old English flyht, from Proto-West Germanic *fluhti, derived from Proto-Germanic *fleuganą ‘to fly’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*plewk-‘to fly’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fleuganą‘to fly’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fluhti‘flight’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150flyht‘flight’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flight
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598flight

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*plewk-‘to fly’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fleuganą‘to fly’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fluhti‘flight’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150flyht‘flight’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flight
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598flight

Earliest quotation: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “Baſſ. In my ſchoole dayes, when I had loſt…”

A compound of *plew- ‘to fly, flow, run’ + *plewk- ‘to fly, flow, run’

Proto-Indo-European *plew- ‘to fly, flow, run’

Proto-Indo-European *plewk- ‘to fly, flow, run’

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *fleuganą ‘to fly’

flew, fowl, flay, 4 more

through Proto-West Germanic *fleugan ‘to fly’

fly, flown, 1 more

Another origin of flight

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fluhtireconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150flyht
  3. Englishtodayflight

Today it means

noun The act of flying; the ability to fly.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *plewk- / flight

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