Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “forgotten” come from?

Forgotten comes from Middle English forgeten, from Old English forġietan, meaning to lose from memory or fail to remember.

forgotten (English): Of which knowledge has been lost; which is no...

Definitions

  1. Of which knowledge has been lost; which is no...

Ancestry of “forgotten”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishforgetTo lose remembrance of; To unintentionally not...
2Middle Englishforgeten—
3Old Englishforġietanto forget
4Proto-West Germanicfragetanto lose hold of; to forget
5Proto-West Germanicfra-forms verbs with the sense of "away from" or "off...
6Proto-Germanicfra-off, away; completely, fully, up
7Proto-Indo-Europeanpro-toward, forward
8Proto-Indo-Europeanpor-to give birth; forward, through; going, passage
9Proto-Indo-Europeanper-before, in front; first; to go through
10Proto-Indo-Europeanpr̥tóspassed , crossed

Words derived from “forgotten”

  • unforgotten
  • unforgot
  • forgottenness
Every word from Proto-Indo-European pr̥tós →