cudgel

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gew-“to bow, bend, arch, curve”
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gewgʰ-“swelling, bow”
3. Proto-Germanic · derived from*kuggǭ“cog, swelling”
4. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kuggilaz“a knobbed instrument”
5. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*kuggil
6. Old English · inherited fromcyċġel“a large stick, cudgel”
7. Middle English · inherited fromkuggel
8. English todaycudgel

From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuggil, from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“a knobbed instrument”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *kuggǭ (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewgʰ- (“swelling, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), equivalent to cog + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch coghele (“a stick with a rounded end”).

Words from the same roots