Etymograph

English

toy

Toy comes from Middle English toye ‘amorous play, piece of fun or entertainment’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dewk- ‘to pull, to draw’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dewk-‘to pull, to draw’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500toye‘amorous play, piece of fun or entertainment’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588toy

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dewk-‘to pull, to draw’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500toye‘amorous play, piece of fun or entertainment’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588toy

Earliest quotation: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “tis a pretie toy to be a Poet.”

The story

Inherited from Middle English toye (‘amorous play, piece of fun or entertainment’), probably from Middle Dutch toy, tuyg (‘tools, apparatus, utensil, ornament’) as in Dutch speel-tuig (‘plaything, toy’), from Old Dutch *tiug, from Proto-West Germanic *tiugī̆, *teug, from Proto-Germanic *teugą (“stuff, matter, device, gear, lever”, literally “that which is drawn or pulled”), from Proto-Germanic *teuhaną (‘to lead, bring, pull’), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (‘to pull, lead’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dewk- ‘to pull, to draw’

team, education, production, product, produce, reduce, conduct, introduction, tie, touch, duke, reduction, introduce, educate, duchess, induction, tying, dolphin, duct, induce, tuck, tighten, tug, conn, douche, educator, conducive, seduce, tow, subdue, duchy, doge, herzog, tether, taut, transducer, duc, redux, cond, duce, 126 more

Today it means

noun Something to play with, especially as intended for use by a child.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dewk- / toy

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