Etymology

oxen

ox·en
O1X8E1N1

Today it means: Of, relating to, or resembling an ox; oxlike Full definition →

Middle English oxen ← Old English oxan ← Proto-West Germanic *ohsō
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*uksḗn
  2. Proto-Germanic*uhsô
  3. Proto-West Germanic*ohsō
  4. Old Englishoxa
  5. Old Englishoxan
  6. Middle Englishoxen
  7. English todayoxen

From Middle English oxen, from Old English oxan, from Proto-West Germanic *ohsan, from Proto-Germanic *uhsniz, nominative and accusative plural of *uhsô (“ox”), equivalent to ox + -en (plural ending).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishoxan all →

Oxenbridge

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.