Etymograph

English

warm

Warm comes from Middle English warm, from Old English wearm, from Proto-Germanic *warmaz ‘warm’, whose deeper origin is disputed.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*warmaz‘warm’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*warm‘warm’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wearm‘warm’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500warm‘warm’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1646same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*warmaz‘warm’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*warm‘warm’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wearm‘warm’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500warm‘warm’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1646same form

Earliest quotation: 1646, Song on May Morning: “Mirth, and youth, and warm desire!”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- ‘warm, hot’

thermal, gore, furnace, gory, forceps, thermos, garlick, 18 more

Another origin of warm

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰer-‘warm, hot’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰór-mo-suncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*warmazreconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*warmijaną‘to warm, to heat’reconstructed
  5. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*warmijan‘to make warm, heat’reconstructed
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150wierman‘to warm, make warm’
  7. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*warmōnreconstructed
  8. Old Englishc. 450–1150wearmian‘to get warm’
  9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500warmen
  10. Englishtodaywarm

Today it means

adj Of a somewhat high temperature, often but not always connoting that the high temperature is pleasant rather than uncomfortable.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *warmaz / warm

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