Etymograph

English

grub

Grub comes from Middle English grubben, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰrebʰ-root as named
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*grubb-reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CEsame formreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150*grubbianreconstructed
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500grubben
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1609grub

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰrebʰ-root as named
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*grubb-reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CEsame formreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150*grubbianreconstructed
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500grubben
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1609grub

Earliest quotation: 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall: “John Romane, a short clownish grub, would bear the…”

first attested The slang sense of "food" is first recorded 1659, and has been linked with birds eating grubs or with bub (“drink”) (as stated in the etymology)

The story

The noun sense of "larva" is from Middle English grub, grubbe, grobbe, crubbe and may derive from the notion of "digging insect" from the verb above, or from the uncertainly related Middle English grub (‘dwarfish fellow’). The slang sense of "food" is first recorded 1659, and has been linked with birds eating grubs or with bub (‘drink’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ-

grab, grave, grasp, groove, graft, grapple, 7 more

Today it means

noun An insect, especially a beetle, at an immature stage of its life cycle.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- / grub

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