Etymology

nod

N1O1D2

Today it means: To incline the head up and down, as to indicate agreement. Full definition →

Middle English nodden ← Old English *hnodian ← Proto-West Germanic *hnodōn
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kendʰ-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hnudōną“to beat, rivet, pound, push”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hnodōn
  4. Old English · inherited from*hnodian“to nod, shake the head”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromnodden
  6. English todaynod

From Middle English nodden, probably from an unrecorded Old English *hnodian (“to nod, shake the head”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnodōn, from Proto-Germanic *hnudōną (“to beat, rivet, pound, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *kendʰ-, from *ken- (“to scratch, scrape, rub”). Compare Old High German hnotōn (“to shake”), hnutten (“to shake, rattle, vibrate”) (> modern dialectal German notteln, nütteln (“to rock, move back and forth”)), Faroese njóða (“to clench a nail”), Icelandic hnjóða (“to rivet, clinch”), Faroese noða (“to double by bending”), Icelandic hnoða (“to clinch, rivet”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.