Etymology

oaken

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Today it means: Made from the wood of the oak tree. Also in metaphorical uses, suggesting robustness. Full definition →

Middle English oken ← Old English ācen ← Proto-Germanic *aikīnaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*aikīnaz
  2. Old English · inherited fromācen
  3. Middle English · inherited fromoken
  4. English todayoaken

Inherited from Middle English oken (also eken), from Old English ācen, ǣċen (“of oak”), from Proto-Germanic *aikīnaz, equivalent to oak + -en (adjectival suffix). Cognate with Dutch eiken (“oaken”), German eichen (“oaken”), Icelandic eikinn (“oaken”).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishācen all →

Hockenhull

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.