Etymology

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ar·row
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Today it means: A projectile consisting of a shaft, a point and a tail with stabilizing fins that is shot from a bow. Full definition →

Middle English arwe ← Old English earh ← Proto-West Germanic *arhu
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arrow · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₂érkʷo-“bow, arrow”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*arhwō“arrow”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*arhu“arrow”
  4. Old English · inherited fromearh“arrow”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromarwe
  6. English todayarrow

From Middle English arwe, from Old English earh (“arrow”) (oblique form ēarw-), from Proto-West Germanic *arhu (“arrow”), from Proto-Germanic *arhwō (“arrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂érkʷo- (“bow, arrow”). Cognate with Faroese ørv, ørvur (“arrow”), Icelandic ör (“arrow”), örvar (“arrows”), Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐍈𐌰𐌶𐌽𐌰 (arƕazna, “dart”), Asturian and Leonese arcu (“bow”), Aragonese, Galician, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish arco (“bow”), Catalan, French, and Romanian arc (“bow”), Latin arcus (“bow”). Doublet of arch, arc, arco, and arcus.

arrow · contraction2

Representing pronunciation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.