English
pull
Pull comes from Old English pullian ‘to pull, draw, pluck’, of uncertain origin.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150pullian‘to pull, pluck’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pullen‘to pull’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591pull
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150pullian‘to pull, pluck’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pullen‘to pull’
- Englishearliest quotation 1591pull
Earliest quotation: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “Two pulls at once; / His lady banished, and…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *welh₃- ‘to hit, to strike’
vulnerable, invulnerability, 21 more
through Latin vello ‘to pluck out, to pull’
Today it means
verb To apply a force to (an object) so that it comes toward the person or thing applying the force.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English pullian / pull