The story
- Proto-Germanic · derived from*rutāną“to rot”
- Old Norse · derived fromrotinn“decayed, rotten”
- Middle English · inherited fromroten
- English todayrotten
From Middle English roten, from Old Norse rotinn (“decayed, rotten”), past participle of an unrecorded verb related to Old Norse rotna (“to rot”) and Old English rotian (“to rot”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rutāną (“to rot”). See rot. By surface analysis, rot + -en (past participle).
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishroten all →
rot
Proto-Germanic*rutāną all →
rot
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.