Etymograph

English

way

Way comes from Middle English way, from Old English weġ, from Proto-Germanic *wegaz, from PIE *weǵʰ- ‘to bring’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weǵʰ-‘to bring’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wegazreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*weg‘way’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150weġ
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500way
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1596same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weǵʰ-‘to bring’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wegazreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*weg‘way’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150weġ
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500way
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1596same form

Earliest quotation: 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: “on a time as they together way'd, / He…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- ‘to bring’

via, vehicle, reveal, wave, vector, weigh, wee, vein, vogue, veil, wedge, wagon, venous, vex, wonky, eunuch, vena, wey, wag, invective, velar, wain, waw, 40 more

through Old English weġ ‘road’

always, halfway, headway

Today it means

noun A road, a direction, a (physical or conceptual) path from one place to another.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- / way

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