Where does “we” come from?

We descends from Old English wēa, from Proto-Germanic wīz, from Proto-Indo-European wéy, ultimately from the root éǵh₂ meaning to drive or move.

we (English): The speakers/writers, or the speaker/writer and...

Definitions

  1. The speakers/writers, or the speaker/writer and...

Ancestry of “we”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle EnglishweFirst-person plural pronoun: we; First-person...
2Old Englishwēwe
3Proto-West Germanicwiʀwe
4Proto-Germanicwīzwe
5Proto-Indo-Europeanwéywe
6Proto-Indo-Europeanéǵh₂I

Words derived from “we”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European éǵh₂ →