The story
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*sangwārī“singer”
- Old English · inherited fromsangere
- Middle English · inherited fromsongere
- English todaysonger
Perhaps dialectally inherited from Middle English songere, from Old English sangere, from Proto-West Germanic *sangwārī (“singer”), whence German Sänger, Dutch zanger etc. Equivalent to song + -er. Alternatively newly formed from these components.
Words from the same roots
Old Englishsangere all →
sanger
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.