Where does “somebody” come from?

Somebody comes from Middle English body, Old English sum, Proto-Germanic sumaz, and Proto-Indo-European sem-, meaning to designate an unspecified person.

somebody (English): Some unspecified person; A recognised or...

Definitions

  1. Some unspecified person; A recognised or...

Ancestry of “somebody”, step by step

somebody traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English some

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishsomeA certain number, at least two; An indefinite...
2Middle Englishsomsome
3Old Englishsumsome
4Proto-West Germanic*sumsome
5Proto-Germanicsumazsome (one), a certain (one)
6Proto-Indo-Europeansem-together, one

via English body

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishbodyPhysical frame; Main section; Coherent group
2Middle Englishbody—
3Old Englishbodiġstature
4Proto-West Germanicbodagbody, trunk, corpse
5Proto-Turkic*boda-—

Words derived from “somebody”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European sem- →