Etymograph

English

look

Look comes from Middle English loken ‘to look (at)’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lōkōn‘to look’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150lōcian‘to look’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500loken‘to look’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592look

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lōkōn‘to look’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150lōcian‘to look’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500loken‘to look’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592look

Earliest quotation: c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew: “I have[…]more feet than shoes, or such shoes as…”

The story

Further origin unknown, no certain cognates outside Germanic.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Likely also related to German lugen (‘to peek’), Alemannic German luege (‘to look’), Yiddish לוגן (lugn).

Every English word from Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn

Today it means

verb As an intransitive verb, often with “at”.

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

Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *lōkōn / look

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