Etymograph

English

peg

Peg comes from Middle Dutch pegge ‘pin, peg’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bak-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bak-‘peg, club’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pig-reconstructed
  3. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*pigg-reconstructed
  4. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500pegge‘pin, peg’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pegge
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604peg

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bak-‘peg, club’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*pig-reconstructed
  3. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*pigg-reconstructed
  4. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500pegge‘pin, peg’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pegge
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1604peg

Earliest quotation: c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice: “O, you are well tuned now! / But I'll…”

The story

This is one of the very few English words that begin with a p and come from Proto-Germanic. Proto-Germanic *p, when not in a consonant cluster beginning with *s, developed by Grimm's law from the Proto-Indo-European consonant *b, which was very rare.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bak- ‘peg, club’

beak, debacle

Today it means

noun A cylindrical wooden or metal object used to fasten or as a bearing between objects.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bak- / peg

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