Etymograph

English

kite

Kite comes from Middle English kyte ‘a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red…’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *kūt ‘bird of prey’.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kūt‘bird of prey’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*kūtijō‘kite (bird)’reconstructeddiminutive of *kūt
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150cȳta
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kyte‘a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1575kite

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kūt‘bird of prey’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanic, derivedc. 200–500 CE*kūtijō‘kite (bird)’reconstructeddiminutive of *kūt
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150cȳta
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kyte‘a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1575kite

Earliest quotation: 1575, George Gascoigne, Councell to Duglasse Diue Written vpon This Occasion. …: “And yet the ſillie kight, well weyde in each…”

The story

The noun is from Middle English kyte, kīte, kete (‘a kite endemic to Europe, especially the red kite (Milvus milvus)’), from Old English cȳta (‘kite; bittern’), from Proto-West Germanic *kūtijō, diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *kūt (‘bird of prey’), from Proto-Indo-European *gewH-d- (‘to cry, screech’). The English word is cognate with Scots kyt, kyte (‘kite; bird of prey’), Middle High German kiuzelīn, kützlīn (‘owling’) (modern German Kauz (‘owl’)). Sense 3 (‘lightweight toy’) is from the fact that it hovers in the air like the bird.

Every English word from Proto-West Germanic *kūt

Another origin of kite

  1. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500kitte‘wooden vessel of hooped staves’uncertain
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kituncertain
  3. Englishtodaykite

Another origin of kite

  1. Egyptianc. 3200 BCE–600 CEqdt‘a qite, a measure of weight equivalent to ¹⁄₁₀ dbn, or 9.1 grams’
  2. Demotic Egyptianmodernqt
  3. Copticmodernⲕⲓⲧⲉkite
  4. Englishtodaykite

Today it means

noun A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.

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

Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *kūt / kite

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