Etymograph

English

get

Get comes from Old Norse geta ‘to get’, from Proto-Germanic *getaną ‘to find; to acquire’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- ‘to take, seize’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰed-‘to take, seize’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*getaną‘to find; to acquire, get’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350geta‘to get’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500geten‘to get’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591get

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰed-‘to take, seize’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*getaną‘to find; to acquire, get’reconstructed
  3. Old Norsec. 800–1350geta‘to get’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500geten‘to get’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591get

Earliest quotation: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “We mourn, France smiles; we lose, they daily get.”

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *getaną ‘to find’

guess, yet, gat, 1 more

Another origin of get

  1. Sumerianc. 3100–1800 BCESumerian formtransliteratedcuneiform Sumerian form, a transliterationuncertain
  2. Sumerian, derivedc. 3100–1800 BCEsame formtransliteratedcuneiform Sumerian form, a transliterationuncertain
  3. Akkadianc. 2500–100 BCEAkkadian formtransliteratedcuneiform Akkadian form, a transliterationuncertain
  4. Hebrew1880s–presentגֵּטgēṭ‘a get, a document effecting the divorce of a wife from her husband’
  5. Englishtodayget

Today it means

verb To obtain; to acquire.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- / get

Shirt and support for this word