Etymology

roost

R1O1O1S1T1

Today it means: The place where a bird sleeps (usually its nest or a branch). Full definition →

Middle English roste ← Old English hrōst ← Proto-West Germanic *hrōst
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hrōstaz“wooden framework; grill”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hrōst
  3. Old English · inherited fromhrōst“wooden framework of a roof; roost”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromroste“chicken's roost; perch”
  5. English todayroost

From Middle English roste (“chicken's roost; perch”), from Old English hrōst (“wooden framework of a roof; roost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrōst, from Proto-Germanic *hrōstaz (“wooden framework; grill”); see *raustijan. Cognate with Dutch roest (“roost”), German Low German Rust (“roost”), German Rost (“grate; gridiron; grill”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishroste all →

roast

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.