Etymograph

English

lark

Lark comes from Middle English larke ‘skylark’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *laiwazikǭ.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*laiwazikǭreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*laiwaʀikāreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150lāwerce
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500larke‘skylark’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1990lark

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*laiwazikǭreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*laiwaʀikāreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150lāwerce
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500larke‘skylark’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1990lark

Earliest quotation: 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders: “Charles Randolph Grean is married to pop lark and…”

The story

From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-West Germanic *laiwaʀikā, from Proto-Germanic *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *laiwazikǭ

Today it means

noun Any of various small, singing passerine birds of the family Alaudidae.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *laiwazikǭ / lark

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