Etymology

ebb

E1B3B3

Today it means: The receding movement of the tide. Full definition →

Middle English ebbe ← Old English ebba ← Proto-West Germanic *abbjā
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ebb · noun, adjective1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*apó
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*ab“off, away”
  3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*abjô
  4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*abbjā
  5. Old English · inherited fromebba“ebb, tide”
  6. Middle English · inherited fromebbe
  7. English todayebb

From Middle English ebbe, from Old English ebba (“ebb, tide”), from Proto-West Germanic *abbjā, from Proto-Germanic *abjô, *abjǭ, from Proto-Germanic *ab (“off, away”), from Proto-Indo-European *apó. See also West Frisian ebbe, Dutch eb, German Ebbe, Danish ebbe, Old Norse efja (“countercurrent”), Old English af. More at of, off.

ebb · verb2

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*abbjōn“to ebb”
  2. Old English · inherited fromebbian
  3. Middle English · inherited fromebben
  4. English todayebb

From Middle English ebben, from Old English ebbian, from Proto-West Germanic *abbjōn (“to ebb”).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishebba all →

Epsom

Proto-Germanic*ab all →

ofoff

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.