Etymology

are

A1R1E1

Today it means: An accepted (but deprecated and rarely used) metric unit of area equal to 100 square metres, or a former unit of approximately the same extent. Symbol: a. Full definition →

Middle English aren ← Old English earon ← Proto-Germanic *arun?
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are · verb1

  1. Proto-Germanic*arun?
  2. Old Englishearon
  3. Middle Englisharen
  4. English todayare

From Middle English aren, from Old English (Anglian) earun, earon (“are”, plural). Possibly reinforced by the Old Norse plural forms in er-, this displaced the alternative forms Old English sind and bēoþ. In the second person singular it displaced archaic art. Further etymology controversial: * The English forms, as well as the Old Swedish forms in ær-, could reflect Proto-Germanic preterite-present *ōr ~ *arum, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃e-h₃ór-h₂e (“I have risen”, perfect). * Since they are not the expected outcomes of the Proto-Germanic forms of *wesaną (“to be”) in *iz-, they would have to be irregular alterations. For Seebold this explanation is still preferable as similar variants in other verbs are not uncommon.

are · noun2

  1. French · derived fromare
  2. English todayare

From French are.

are · determiner3

From the phonetic similarity between our and are in many English dialects (both /ɑː(ɹ)/).

Are · proper noun4

  1. Estonian · borrowed fromAre
  2. Estonian · borrowed fromAre
  3. English todayAre

Borrowed from Estonian Are.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*h₃er- all →

riseraiseearnorientyearnrine

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.