English
side
Side comes from Old English sīde ‘side, flank’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *sīdaz ‘drooping, hanging down, pendulous, long,…’.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdaz‘drooping’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdǭ‘side’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sīde‘side’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500side
- Englishearliest quotation 1590side
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdaz‘drooping’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdǭ‘side’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sīde‘side’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500side
- Englishearliest quotation 1590side
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto IX: “His blind eye that syded Paridell.”
The story
From Middle English side, from Old English sīde (‘side, flank’), from Proto-Germanic *sīdǭ (‘side, flank, edge, shore’), derived from *sīdaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (‘long, lasting’). The LGBTQ slang sense was coined by sex therapist and author Joe Kort in 2010 and popularized in 2013. The sense was coined by analogy with top and bottom and based on the metaphor of a box which has a top, bottom, and sides.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- ‘long, lasting’
season, since, earn, seed, seminar, semen, sow, serene, seminal, sower, 16 more
Another origin of side
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sēy-‘to send, throw, drop, sow, deposit’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdaz‘drooping, hanging, low, excessive, extra’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sīdreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sīd‘wide, broad, spacious, ample, extensive, vast, far-reaching’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500side
- Englishtodayside
Today it means
noun A bounding straight edge of a two-dimensional shape.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *sīdaz / side