Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “didya” come from?

didya (English) comes from English ya, from Malay ya, from English yea, from Middle English yë, from Old English ġē, from Proto-Germanic jahw, from Proto-Germanic -hw, from Proto-Germanic -hwe — and; Forms distributives from interrogatives.

Ancestry of “didya”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishyaNonstandard spelling of you; Yeah; yes; yea; yes
2Malayyayes; Vocative particle; grammatical particle for...
3EnglishyeaYes; Thus, so; Or even, or more like, nay
4Middle EnglishyëAlternative form of eie
5Old Englishġēye
6Proto-Germanicjahwand, also
7Proto-Germanic-hwand; Forms distributives from interrogatives
8Proto-Germanic-hwe—
9Proto-Indo-European-kʷeand; Forms distributives from interrogatives
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -kʷe →