Etymograph

English

jowl

Jowl comes from Middle English jawle ‘jaw, jawbone’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *kaflaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kaflaz‘jaw’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kafl‘jaw, cheek’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ċeafl‘jaw, cheek’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500jawle‘jaw, jawbone’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602jowl

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kaflaz‘jaw’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kafl‘jaw, cheek’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ċeafl‘jaw, cheek’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500jawle‘jaw, jawbone’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602jowl

Earliest quotation: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “That ſkull had a tongue in it, and could…”

The story

The modern form (for expected chavel, chawl; still found dialectally) is influenced by jaw, which it is a partial doublet of.

Linked words

through Old English ċeafl ‘jaw, cheek’

jabber, 2 more

Another origin of jowl

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷelu-‘to swallow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kelǭ‘gullet’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kelā‘throat’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150ċeole‘throat’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cholle‘wattle, jowl’
  6. Englishtodayjowl

Another origin of jowl

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500jollen
  2. Englishtodayjowl

Today it means

noun The jaw, jawbone; especially one of the lateral parts of the mandible.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *kaflaz / jowl

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