English
wide
Wide comes from Old English wīd ‘wide, vast, broad, long’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to divide, separate’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weydʰh₁-‘to divide’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wīdazreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wīd‘wide’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wid
- Englishearliest quotation 1549wide
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weydʰh₁-‘to divide’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wīdazreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wīd‘wide’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wid
- Englishearliest quotation 1549wide
Earliest quotation: 1549, Hughe Latymer [i.e.: “But I tell you, it is farre wyde, that…”
A compound of *dwi- ‘apart, asunder, in two’ + *dʰeh₁- ‘to do, put, place’
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to divide, separate’
division, individual, wood, device, divide, widow, devise, divisible, fid, 12 more
Today it means
adj Having a large physical extent from side to side.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.