Etymology

all-

Today it means: Indicates complete power or authority in an area. Full definition →

Middle English all- ← Old English æl- ← Proto-West Germanic *ala-
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-der.?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₂elnós
  3. Proto-Germanic*allaz
  4. Proto-Germanic*ala-
  5. Proto-West Germanic*ala-
  6. Old Englishæl-
  7. Middle Englishall-
  8. English todayall-

From Middle English all- (also al-), from Old English eall-, eal- (“all-”). Cognate with Dutch al-, German all-, Swedish all-. More at all.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.