Where does “yan” come from?

Yan is a Chinese word written as 燕 with an unknown original meaning.

Ancestry of “yan”, step by step

Step	Language	Word	Meaning
1	Old English	ān	lonely; entirely alone, solitary, single; one
2	Proto-West Germanic	ain	one
3	Proto-Germanic	ainaz	one; some
4	Proto-Indo-European	óynos	one; single

yan — Etymology, Origin & Word History | Etymology Explorer