Etymograph

English

ram

Ram comes from Middle English ram ‘male sheep, ram’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *rammaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rammazreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150ramm
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ram‘male sheep, ram’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1898same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rammazreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150ramm
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ram‘male sheep, ram’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1898same form

Earliest quotation: 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds: “About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *rammaz

Another origin of ram

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rammen
  2. Englishtodayram

Another origin of ram

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rammaz‘strong, overbearing’uncertain
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350ramr‘gruff, hoarse, loud’uncertain
  3. Englishtodayram

Likely from Old Norse ramr, rammr (‘strong, rank, bitter’), from Proto-Germanic *rammaz (‘strong, overbearing; acrid, rank’), perhaps ultimately related to Etymology 1 above.

Today it means

noun A male sheep, typically uncastrated.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *rammaz / ram

Shirt and support for this word