Etymograph

English

stretch

Stretch comes from Middle English strecchen, from Old English streċċan ‘to stretch, extend’, from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan ‘to make taut’, from PIE *(s)treg-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)treg-‘stiff, rigid’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*strakkjan‘to stretch, make taut’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150streċċan‘to stretch, extend’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500strecchen‘to stretch out, extend’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1659stretch

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)treg-‘stiff, rigid’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*strakkjan‘to stretch, make taut’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150streċċan‘to stretch, extend’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500strecchen‘to stretch out, extend’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1659stretch

Earliest quotation: 1659, Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall: “The inner membrane […] because it would stretch and…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-

strenuous, 3 more

through Middle English strecchen ‘to stretch out, spread, extend’

straight

Today it means

verb To lengthen by pulling.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg- / stretch

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