Etymology

in

I1N1

Today it means: Contained by; inside. Full definition →

Middle English in ← Old English in ← Proto-Germanic *in
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*innai
  2. Old English · inherited frominn
  3. Middle English · inherited fromin
  4. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*in
  5. Old English · inherited fromin
  6. Middle English · inherited fromin
  7. English todayin

PIE word *h₁en Preposition and verb from Middle English in, from Old English in, from Proto-Germanic *in. Adverb, noun and adjective from Middle English in, from Old English inn and inne, from Proto-Germanic *innai. Sense 1/2 "in"/"into" are from the original PIE prefix, with locative/accusative case respectively. Sense 3/4 "qualification"/"means" are from the PIE metaphor of all infinitives coming from locatives.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishin all →

inn

Proto-Germanic*in all →

en-in-

Old Englishinn all →

inn

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.