The story
- Old English · derived fromoferniman“to take by surprise, overtake”
- Middle English · derived fromovernimen“to overtake”
- Middle English · inherited fromovertaken
- English todayovertake
From Middle English overtaken, likely a replacement alteration (as the Middle English verb taken replaced nimen (“to take”)), of Middle English overnimen (“to overtake”), from Old English oferniman (“to take by surprise, overtake”), equivalent to over- + take.
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishovernimen all →
overnim
Old Englishoferniman all →
overnim
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.