Etymograph

English

sleep

Sleep comes from Middle English slepen, from Anglian Old English slēpan, from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną ‘to sleep’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slēpaną‘to sleep’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slāpanreconstructed
  3. Anglian Old Englishmodernslēpan‘to sleep’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slepen‘to sleep’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598sleep

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slēpaną‘to sleep’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slāpanreconstructed
  3. Anglian Old Englishmodernslēpan‘to sleep’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slepen‘to sleep’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598sleep

Earliest quotation: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “How ſweet the moone-light ſleepes vpon this banke,[…]”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną

Another origin of sleep

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*slēpazreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*slāpreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150slǣp
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500slepe
  5. Englishtodaysleep

Today it means

verb To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *slēpaną / sleep

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