Where does “oof” come from?
oof (Middle English) comes from Old English ōwef, from Old English wef, from Middle English weven, from Old English wefan, from Proto-West Germanic weban, from Proto-Germanic webaną, from Proto-Indo-European webʰ- — to weave, braid.
Ancestry of “oof”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old English | ōwef | — |
| 2 | Old English | wef | web |
| 3 | Middle English | weven | To weave; to perform or do some weaving; To... |
| 4 | Old English | wefan | to weave |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | weban | to weave |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | webaną | to weave |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | webʰ- | to weave, braid |