Etymology

oat

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Today it means: Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa. Full definition →

Middle English ote ← Old English āte ← Proto-West Germanic *aitā
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₁eyd-“to swell”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*aitǭ“swelling; gland; nodule”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*aitā
  4. Old English · inherited fromāte
  5. Middle English · inherited fromote
  6. English todayoat

Inherited from Middle English ote, from Old English āte, from Proto-West Germanic *aitā, from Proto-Germanic *aitǭ (“swelling; gland; nodule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyd- (“to swell”). See English atter (“poison”). Cognates * Germanic: cognate with Scots ait (“oat”), West Frisian oat (“wild oat”), Dutch oot, aat (“wild oat”), Saterland Frisian Aate (“pea”), German Low German Aat (“oat”), obsolete Luxembourgish Otz (“oat”). Further related to Icelandic eitill (“nodule”), Norwegian Bokmål eitel (“knot, gland”), Norwegian Nynorsk eitel (“knot, gland”), Old High German eiz (“abscess”) (German Eiter (“pus”), Eiß (“ulcer”)), Dutch etter (“pus”), Saterland Frisian eitel (“fast, raging”), Old Norse eitill (“nodule”) * Indo-European: Latin aemidus (“swollen, protuberant”), Old Church Slavonic ꙗдъ (jadŭ, “poison”), Ancient Greek οἰδέω (oidéō, “to swell”), Albanian ënjt (“to swell, inflame”), Old Armenian այտնում (aytnum, “to swell”), այտ (ayt, “cheek”), Sanskrit इन्दु (índu, “water drop”)

Words from the same roots

Old Englishāte all →

ait

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.