Where does “body” come from?

Body comes from Middle English body, Old English bodiġ, and Proto-West Germanic bodag, with ultimate origins in Proto-Indo-European bʰewdʰ-.

body (English): Physical frame; Main section; Coherent group

Definitions

  1. Physical frame; Main section; Coherent group

Ancestry of “body”, step by step

body traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Middle English body

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishbody—
2Old Englishbodiġstature
3Proto-West Germanicbodagbody, trunk, corpse
4Proto-Turkic*boda-—

via Middle English bodiȝ

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishbodiȝ—

Words derived from “body”

Every word from Proto-Turkic *boda- →Every word from Proto-West Germanic bodag →Every word from Old English bodiġ →