Etymograph

English

sew

Sew comes from Middle English sewen ‘to sew’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *syewH-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*syewH-‘to sew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*siwjaną‘to sew’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150siwian‘to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sewen‘to sew’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2018sew

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*syewH-‘to sew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*siwjaną‘to sew’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150siwian‘to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sewen‘to sew’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2018sew

Earliest quotation: 2018, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Kate Spade, whose handbags carried women into adulthood, is : “She [Kate Spade] took the label, which originally had…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *syewH- ‘to sew’

suture, seam, sutra, hymen, souter, sutta, 7 more

Today it means

verb To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *syewH- / sew

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