Etymograph

English

sting

Sting comes from Middle English styng ‘a sting’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *stingaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stingazreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sting‘a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500styng‘a sting’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592sting

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stingazreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sting‘a sting, stab, thrust made with a pointed instrument’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500styng‘a sting’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592sting

Earliest quotation: c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “the lurking serpent's mortal sting”.

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *stingaz

Another origin of sting

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*stengʰ-‘to be stiff, sting’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stinganą‘to sting’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*stinganreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150stingan‘to sting’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stingen
  6. Englishtodaysting

Today it means

noun A bump left on the skin after having been stung.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *stingaz / sting

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