catch

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*kap-
2. Proto-Indo-European*kapyéti
3. Proto-Indo-European*kaptós
4. Proto-Italic*kaptos
5. Latincaptus
6. Vulgar Latin*captiāre
7. Old Frenchchacier
8. Anglo-Normancachier
9. Middle Englishcacchen
10. English todaycatch

From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Via PIE cognate with have. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan. The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 13th c. To capture or snare (someone or something which would rather escape).
• from 14th c. To entrap or trip up a person; to deceive.
• from 16th c. To reach (someone) with a strike, blow, weapon etc.
• from 17th c. To overtake or catch up to; to be in time for.
• from 17th c. To discover and observe (someone or something while it takes some action or exists) (sometimes, but not always, with implications of 'unpleasantly' or 'unexpectedly').
• from 19th c. To travel by means of.
• from 19th c. To become pregnant. (Only in past tense or as participle.)
• from 13th c. To grab, seize, take hold of.