The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ḱr̥h₂sro-“hornet”
- Proto-Germanic · derived from*hursulǭ
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hurznutō
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hurnutu
- Old English · inherited fromhyrnetu
- Middle English · inherited fromhernet
- English todayhornet
From Middle English hernet, from Old English hyrnetu, hyrnete, from Proto-West Germanic *hurnutu, from Proto-Germanic *hurznutō (compare German Hornisse), alteration of Proto-Germanic *hursulǭ (compare Dutch horzel), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂sro- (“hornet”, literally “the one with horns (antennae)”), from *ḱerh₂- (“horn”) (compare Welsh creyryn (“gadfly”), Latin crābrō (“hornet”), Lithuanian širšė (“wasp”), Proto-Slavic *sьrxy (whence Old Church Slavonic сръшень (srŭšenĭ, “hornet”) and many others), Albanian grerë, grenzë (“wasp, hornet”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.