English

why

/waɪ̯/
Introducing a complete question.

    Etymology graph

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    • derived
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    • meaning component
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English why, from Old English hwȳ (“why”), from Proto-Germanic *hwī (“by what, how”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey, instrumental case of *kʷís (“who”), *kʷid (“what”).

    Cognate with Old Saxon hwī (“why”), hwiu (“how; why”), Middle High German wiu (“how, why”), archaic Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hvi (“why”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvi (“why”), Swedish vi (“why”), Faroese and Icelandic hví (“why”), Latin quī (“why”), Doric Greek πεῖ (peî, “where”), Ukrainian чи (čy, “if”), Polish czy, Czech či (“or”), Serbo-Croatian či (“if”). Compare Old English þȳ (“because, since, on that account, therefore, then”, literally “by that, for that”). See thy.

    Etymology 2

    A variant of quey.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • rootProto-Indo-European*kʷ-
    • inheritedMiddle Englishwhy
      • inheritedOld Englishhwȳ “why”
        • inheritedProto-Germanic*hwī “by what, how”
          • derivedProto-Indo-European*kʷey

    Related: Old Saxon hwī, Middle High German wiu, Norwegian Nynorsk kvi, Swedish vi, Latin quī, Doric Greek πεῖ, Ukrainian чи, Polish czy, Czech či, Serbo-Croatian či

    Sources