Etymograph

English

put

Put comes from Middle English putten ‘to put’, from Proto-West Germanic *putōn ‘to stick, stab, poke’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *putōną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*putōną‘to stick’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*putōn‘to stick’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150putian
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500putten‘to put’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1382–1395put

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*putōną‘to stick’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*putōn‘to stick’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150putian
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500putten‘to put’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1382–1395put

Earliest quotation: c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe et al., The Holy Bible: “No man hath more love than this, that a…”

The story

From Middle English putten, pitten, pytten, puten, poten, from Old English putian, *pūtian ("to push, put out"; attested by derivative putung (‘pushing, impulse, instigation, urging’)) and potian (‘to push, thrust, strike, butt, goad’), both from Proto-West Germanic *putōn, from Proto-Germanic *putōną (‘to stick, stab’), which is of uncertain origin.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bud- (‘to shoot, sprout’), which would make it cognate with Sanskrit बुन्द (bundá, “arrow”), Lithuanian budė, and budis (‘mushroom, fungus’).

Linked words

through Middle English putten ‘to put’

putt, 2 more

Today it means

verb To physically place (sth or sb swh).

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *putōną / put

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