Etymograph

English

tread

Tread comes from Middle English treden ‘to stomp or walk with great force’, from Old English tredan ‘to tread’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *trudaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*trudaną‘to tread, to step on’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*tredan‘to tread’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150tredan‘to tread’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500treden‘to stomp or walk with great force’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596tread

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*trudaną‘to tread, to step on’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*tredan‘to tread’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150tredan‘to tread’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500treden‘to stomp or walk with great force’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596tread

Earliest quotation: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, Loues Labour’s Lost: “They have measured many a mile, / To tread…”

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *trudaną ‘to tread, to step on’

troll, droll, trine, 2 more

Another origin of tread

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500treden‘to tread’
  2. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500tred‘the trail or signs left by travel’
  3. Englishtodaytread

Today it means

verb To step or walk (on or across something); to trample.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *trudaną / tread

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