English

where

/ˈwɛə/
In, at or to what place.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    From Middle English wher, from Old English hwǣr (“where”, literally “at what place”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwār, from Proto-Germanic *hwar (“where”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- (interrogative pronoun).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishwher
      • inheritedOld Englishhwǣr
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*hwār
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*hwar
            • partProto-Germanic*hwaz
              • derivedProto-Indo-European*kʷos “what; which”
              • inheritedProto-Indo-European*kʷís
            • partProto-Germanic*-r
              • inheritedProto-Indo-European*-r
    • rootProto-Indo-European*kʷ-

    Words built on it: where-, start from where you are

    Sources