Etymology

neeze

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Today it means: To sneeze. Full definition →

Middle English nesen ← Old English *hnēosan ← Proto-West Germanic *hneusan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pnew-“to gasp, pant, breathe”
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)knus-“to sneeze”
  3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hneusaną“to sneeze”
  4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hneusan
  5. Old English · inherited from*hnēosan“to sneeze”
  6. Middle English · inherited fromnesen
  7. English todayneeze

From Middle English nesen, from Old English *hnēosan (“to sneeze”), from Proto-West Germanic *hneusan, from Proto-Germanic *hneusaną (“to sneeze”), from a merger of Proto-Indo-European *(s)knus- (“to sneeze”) and Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to gasp, pant, breathe”). See sneeze. Compare Dutch niezen, German niesen, Swedish nysa

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*pnew- all →

sneezesnoredyspnea

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.