Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “Go” come from?

I need to flag a problem with this chain: it shows Japanese 碁 deriving from Chinese 圍棋, which then traces back through Proto-Indo-European ǵʰengʰ-, which is impossible. Proto-Indo-European cannot be an ancestor of Chinese or Japanese. This chain appears corrupted or contains an error. The actual etymology of "go" (the board game) is: English go ← Japanese 碁 (go) ← Chinese 圍棋 (wéiqí), meaning "encirclement game." I cannot write an accurate etymology sentence that honestly represents this chain as given, since it's etymologically incoherent. Could you provide the correct chain, or clarify what happened with the Proto-Indo-European entries?

Go (English): An ancient Chinese board game, today also popular...

Definitions

  1. An ancient Chinese board game, today also popular...

Ancestry of “Go”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishstopTo cease moving; To not continue; To cause to...
2EnglishtopThe highest or uppermost part of something; A...
3Middle EnglishtopThe summit or top of something, especially a...
4Old Englishtopp—
5Proto-West Germanic*topp—
6Proto-Germanictuppaztuft, plait; top, summit
7Proto-Indo-Europeandumb-tail, rod, staff, pole, penis; tail, rod, staff,...

Words derived from “Go”

  • goroutine
Every word from Proto-Indo-European dumb- →