Where does “sleep” come from?
Sleep comes from Middle English slepen, Old English slǣpan, and Proto-Germanic slēpan, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root slap-.
sleep (English): To rest in a state of reduced consciousness; To...
Definitions
- To rest in a state of reduced consciousness; To...
Ancestry of “sleep”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | slepen | to sleep; to become asleep, to cause to sleep; to... |
| 2 | Old English | slǣpan | — |
| 3 | Proto-West Germanic | slāpan | to sleep |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | slēpaną | to sleep |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | slab- | to be weak, be languid; be weak, limp, languid |
Words derived from “sleep”