Where does “Hanseatic League” come from?
Hanseatic League (English) comes from English Hanseatic, from German hanseatisch, from German Hanseat, from German hanse, from Middle High German hanse, from Old High German hansa, from Proto-Germanic *hansu, from Proto-Germanic hansō — whale, sea monster; abyss.
Ancestry of “Hanseatic League”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Hanseatic | Of or pertaining to the German Hanse |
| 2 | German | hanseatisch | Hanseatic |
| 3 | German | Hanseat | a Hanseatic merchant; a native or inhabitant of a... |
| 4 | German | hanse | — |
| 5 | Middle High German | hanse | guild |
| 6 | Old High German | hansa | group; community; guild |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | *hansu | — |
| 8 | Proto-Germanic | hansō | A gathering, summation, mass, quantity, amount; A... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱómsōd | union; gathering; union, gathering |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | Russian | кит | whale; genitive plural of ки́та |
| 14 | Old Church Slavonic | китъ | whale |
| 15 | Ancient Greek | κῆτος | whale, sea monster; abyss |