Where does “years” come from?
Year comes from Middle English yere, Old English ġēar, Proto-Germanic jērą, and Proto-Indo-European yōro-, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root yeh₁r-.
years (English): plural of year; API pl; A very long time
Definitions
- plural of year; API pl; A very long time
Ancestry of “years”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | year | A solar year, the time it takes the Earth to... |
| 2 | Middle English | yeer | year |
| 3 | Old English | ġēar | year |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | jār | year |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | jērą | year; name of the J-rune |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | yeh₁r- | year |
Words derived from “years”