Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “breadcrumbs” come from?

Breadcrumbs derives from English bread and crumb, with bread tracing back through Old English breġdan and Proto-Germanic braudą to Proto-Indo-European roots related to bending and breaking.

breadcrumbs (English): plural of breadcrumb; Third-person singular...

Definitions

  1. plural of breadcrumb; Third-person singular...

Ancestry of “breadcrumbs”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishbreadcrumbA tiny piece of bread, either one that falls from...
2EnglishbreadA foodstuff made by baking dough made from...
3Middle Englishbredbread, pastry; food, nourishment
4Old Englishbredsurface; plank, board; table, tablet
5Old English-enmæġþ + API → mæġden; cocc + API → cycen, cicen;...
6Old Norse-innUsed to create adjectives from nouns, meaning...
7Proto-Norse-īna-—
8Proto-Germanic-īnaz-en
9Proto-Indo-European-iHnosCreates adjectives of materials
10Proto-Indo-European-no-adjectival suffix
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -no- →