The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gʰnēgʰ-“to gnaw, scratch”
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*gnaganą“to gnaw”
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*gnagan
- Old English · inherited fromgnagan
- Middle English · inherited fromgnawen
- English todaygnaw
From Middle English gnawen, gnaȝen, from Old English gnagan, from Proto-West Germanic *gnagan, from Proto-Germanic *gnaganą (“to gnaw”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *gʰnēgʰ- (“to gnaw, scratch”). Cognate with Dutch knagen, German nagen, Danish gnave (“to gnaw”), Norwegian Bokmål gnage, Norwegian Nynorsk gnaga, Swedish gnaga.
Words from the same roots
Proto-Germanic*gnaganą all →
gnag
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.