Etymograph

English

sparkle

Sparkle comes from Middle English sparkel ‘spark’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *sparkō.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sparkō‘spark’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150spearca
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sparke‘spark’
  4. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sparkel‘spark’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590sparkle

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sparkō‘spark’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150spearca
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sparke‘spark’
  4. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sparkel‘spark’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590sparkle

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto XI: “As sparckles from the Anduile vse to fly, /…”

Formed from spark + -le

Proto-West Germanic *sparkō

Old English spearca

Middle English sparke

English spark

The story

In some modern uses deverbal from etymology 2 below.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sper- ‘to jerk, push, fidget, spring’

spiral, sperm, spare, diaspora, sprout, spurious, spore, spiro, 22 more

Another origin of sparkle

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sperg-‘to strew, scatter, sprinkle’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*sper-‘to jerk, push, fidget, spring’uncertain
  3. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*sp(h)erag-uncertain
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sparkaz‘energetic, lively’uncertain
  5. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sparkō‘spark’reconstructed
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150spearca
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sparke‘spark’
  8. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sparkel‘spark’
  9. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sparklen‘to spark (emit sparks)’
  10. Englishtodaysparkle

Today it means

noun A little spark; a scintillation.

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

Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *sparkō / sparkle

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