Where does “every” come from?
Every comes from Old English ǣfre ǣlċ, a combination meaning "always each" that developed into the modern sense of "each one without exception."
every (English): All of a countable group , without exception;...
Definitions
- All of a countable group , without exception;...
Ancestry of “every”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | every | Alternative form of everich |
| 2 | Old English | ǣlċ | — |
| 3 | Old English | ǣġhwylċ | each, every, any, all |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | aiwô | ever, always |
Words derived from “every”