Etymology

defend

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Today it means: To ward off attacks against (something or someone). Full definition →

Middle English defenden ← Old French defendre ← Latin dēfendō
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gʷʰen-
  2. Proto-Italic · derived from*fendō
  3. Latin · derived fromdēfendō“to ward off”
  4. Old French · derived fromdefendre
  5. Middle English · inherited fromdefenden
  6. English todaydefend

From Middle English defenden, from Old French defendre, deffendre (Modern French défendre), from Latin dēfendō (“to ward off”), from Proto-Italic *fendō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen-. Displaced native Old English bewerian.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishdefenden all →

defender

Latindēfendō all →

fend

Proto-Italic*fendō all →

fend

Proto-Indo-European*gʷʰen- all →

banefend

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.