Etymograph

English

quench

Quench comes from Middle English quenchen ‘to quench’, from Proto-Germanic *kwankijaną ‘to cause to go out, extinguish’, and ultimately from *kwinkaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kwinkaną‘to go out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kwankijaną‘to cause to go out, extinguish’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150cwenċan‘to extinguish, quench’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500quenchen‘to quench’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590quench

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kwinkaną‘to go out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kwankijaną‘to cause to go out, extinguish’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150cwenċan‘to extinguish, quench’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500quenchen‘to quench’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590quench

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto V: “The wearie Traueiler, wandring that way, / Therein did…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷes- ‘to be extinguished’

asbestos, 2 more

Today it means

verb To satisfy, especially a literal or figurative thirst.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *kwinkaną / quench

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