Etymograph

English

it

It comes from Middle English hit, from Old English hit, from Proto-Germanic *hit ‘this’, from PIE *ḱe- ‘this’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱe-‘this’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hit‘this’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hitreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hit
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hitas it
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1611it

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱe-‘this’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hit‘this’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hitreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hit
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hitas it
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1611it

Earliest quotation: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “That which groweth of it owne accord of thy…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱe- ‘this, here’

his, she, hen

through Middle English hit

itself, hit

Today it means

pron The third-person singular neuter personal pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object, abstract entity, or non-human living thing.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ḱe- / it

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