Etymograph

English

gorge

Gorge comes from Old French gorge ‘throat’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- ‘to swallow, devour, eat’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷerh₃-‘to swallow, devour, eat’root as named
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEgurga
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gorge‘throat’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘esophagus, gullet’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷerh₃-‘to swallow, devour, eat’root as named
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEgurga
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gorge‘throat’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘esophagus, gullet’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590same form

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto I: “His gall did grate for griefe and high diſdaine,…”

The story

From Middle English gorge (‘esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten’), a borrowing from Old French gorge (‘throat’) (modern French gorge (‘throat; breast’)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (‘eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea’), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (‘to devour, swallow; to eat’). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (‘throat’), Italian gorga, gorgia (‘gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat’), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (‘gullet, throat; gorge’), Spanish gorja (‘gullet, throat; gorge’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- ‘to swallow, devour, eat’

devour, quirk, voracious, herbivorous, ouroboros, gurgle, 25 more

Another origin of gorge

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gorger
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gorgen‘to eat greedily’
  3. Englishtodaygorge

The verb is derived from Middle English gorgen (‘to eat greedily; to gorge’), a borrowing from Old French gorger, gorgier (modern French gorger (‘to eat greedily; to gorge’)), from gorge (‘throat’); see further at etymology 1. The noun is derived from the verb.

Today it means

noun The front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- / gorge

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