Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “wriggle” come from?

Wriggle derives from Middle English -el, Old English -el, Old English -ol, Proto-Indo-European -elo-, and ultimately Proto-Indo-European -lós, tracing a suffix pattern across Germanic and Indo-European languages.

wriggle (English): To twist one's body to and fro with short,...

Definitions

  1. To twist one's body to and fro with short,...

Ancestry of “wriggle”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishwrigTo wriggle
2Middle Englishwriggen—

Words derived from “wriggle”

  • wriggly
  • wriggler
  • wrigglesome
  • unwriggle
  • wriggliness
Every word from Middle English wriggen →