Where does “hookworm” come from?
I appreciate the careful setup, but I need to flag a significant problem: this etymology chain appears corrupted or malformed.
The progression doesn't make linguistic sense:
- "hook" doesn't appear in the chain at all
- "wurm" and "wyrm" (worm) don't lead to "hook"
- The chain repeats "Proto-Indo-European wer-" twice
- The final PIE forms are fragmentary and unclear in their relationship to earlier terms
- No meaning is supplied for any form, so I cannot trace sense development
I cannot write an accurate one-sentence summary from this chain without inventing connections or steps you've explicitly forbidden me to invent.
Could you verify the etymology chain? A proper one would need to show how "hook" + "worm" developed separately (or together), with each step clearly supported and meanings provided for sense development tracking.
hookworm (English): Any of various parasitic bloodsucking roundworms...
Definitions
- Any of various parasitic bloodsucking roundworms...
Ancestry of “hookworm”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | hook | A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with... |
| 2 | Swedish | hök | a hawk; a hawk; proponent of aggressive politics |
| 3 | Old Swedish | høker | hawk |
| 4 | Middle Low German | hȫker | peddler |
| 5 | Old High German | huchan | — |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | *hūkan- | — |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | *hūkkan- | — |
| 8 | Proto-Germanic | *huk(k)ōn- | — |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | *kuk-néh₂ | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱewk- | flare up, glow; white; to glow, burn, lighten |