Etymology Explorer › Middle English

Where does “forefynger” come from?

forefynger (Middle English) comes from Middle English fynger, from Old English finger, from Proto-West Germanic fingr, from Proto-Germanic fingraz, from Proto-Indo-European penkʷrós.

Ancestry of “forefynger”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle EnglishfyngerA finger; The toes; Something unimportant, small,...
2Old Englishfingerfinger
3Proto-West Germanicfingrfinger
4Proto-Germanicfingrazfinger
5Proto-Indo-Europeanpenkʷrós—
Every word from Proto-Indo-European penkʷrós →