English
width
Width comes from English wyde.
- English1500–presentwyde
- Englishearliest quotation 2011width
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- English1500–presentwyde
- Englishearliest quotation 2011width
Earliest quotation: 2011, Ben Dirs, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia: “England looked to put width on the ball after…”
Formed from wide + -th
Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to divide’
Proto-Germanic *wīdaz
Old English wīd ‘wide’
Middle English wid
English wide
The story
From wide + -th (abstract nominal suffix), possibly by analogy with Old Norse vídd (‘width’), though this is unlikely, as the word is not attested before the end of the 16th century and was historically unknown in Scots and the traditional dialect of Northern England, where one would expect Old Norse influence to be the strongest (these varieties traditionally employed wideness instead).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Replaced Middle English wide, wyde (‘width’).
Every English word from English wyde
Today it means
noun The state of being wide.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English wyde / width