Etymology

kerf

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Today it means: The act of cutting or carving something; a stroke or slice. Full definition →

Middle English kerf ← Old English cyrf ← Proto-West Germanic *kurbi
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gerbʰ-“to scratch”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kurbiz“a cut; notch; clipping”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*kurbi
  4. Old English · inherited fromcyrf“an act of cutting, a cutting off; a cutting instrument”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromkerf
  6. English todaykerf

From Middle English kerf, kirf, kyrf, from Old English cyrf (“an act of cutting, a cutting off; a cutting instrument”), from Proto-West Germanic *kurbi, from Proto-Germanic *kurbiz (“a cut; notch; clipping”), from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Käärf, West Frisian kerf, Swedish korv. Related also to Dutch kerf, German Low German Karve, Karv, German Kerbe.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*gerbʰ- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.