Etymology

her

H4E1R1

Today it means: Belonging to her (belonging to that female person or animal, or in poetic or old-fashioned language that ship, city, season, etc). Full definition →

Middle English here ← Old English hire ← Proto-Germanic *hezōi
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hezōi
  2. Old English · inherited fromhire“her”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromhere
  4. English todayher

From Middle English here, hir, hire, from Old English hire (“her”), from Proto-Germanic *hezōi (dative singular of *hijō). Cognate with North Frisian hör, Saterland Frisian hier, hiere (“her”), West Frisian har (“her”), Dutch haar (“her”), German Low German hör (“her”), German ihr (“her”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishhere all →

hair

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.