Etymology

fleece

F4L1E1E1C3E1

Today it means: Hair or wool of a sheep or similar animal. Full definition →

Middle English fles ← Old English flēos ← Proto-West Germanic *fleus
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*fleus
  2. Old English · inherited fromflēos
  3. Middle English · inherited fromfles
  4. English todayfleece

From Middle English fles, flees, flese, from Old English flēos, flīes, flȳs, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.

Words from the same roots

Proto-West Germanic*fleus all →

floss

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.