Etymology Explorer › Old English

Where does “grafan” come from?

grafan (Old English) comes from Proto-West Germanic graban, from Proto-Germanic grabaną, from Proto-Indo-European gʰrābʰ- — to dig, scratch, scrape.

grafan (Old English): to dig, dig up; to grave; engrave, chisel, carve

Definitions

  1. to dig, dig up; to grave; engrave, chisel, carve

Ancestry of “grafan”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Proto-West Germanicgrabanto dig; to engrave
2Proto-Germanicgrabanąto dig; to engrave, scratch
3Proto-Indo-Europeangʰrābʰ-to dig, scratch, scrape
Every word from Proto-Indo-European gʰrābʰ- →