Etymology

here

H4E1R1E1

Today it means: In, on, or at this place (a place perceived to be close to the speaker); compare there. Full definition →

Middle English her ← Old English hēr ← Proto-West Germanic *hēr
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kís
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hē₂r
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hēr
  4. Old English · inherited fromhēr“at this place”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromher
  6. English todayhere

From Middle English her, from Old English hēr (“at this place”), from Proto-West Germanic *hēr, from Proto-Germanic *hē₂r, from *hiz + *-r, from Proto-Indo-European *kís, from *ḱe + *ís. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian hier, West Frisian hjir, Dutch hier, German Low German hier, German hier, Danish her, Swedish här, Norwegian her, Faroese her, Icelandic hér. Also related to the English pronoun he (“this/that person”), and the words hither (“to this place”) and hence (“from this place”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishher all →

hair

Proto-Germanic*hē₂r all →

harass

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.