spill

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)pel-“to sunder, split, rend, tear”
2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*spilþijaną“to spoil, kill, murder”
3. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*spilþijan
4. Old English · derived fromspillan
5. Middle English · derived fromspillen
6. English todayspill

From Middle English spillen, from Old English spillan, spildan (“to kill, destroy, waste”), from Proto-West Germanic *spilþijan, from Proto-Germanic *spilþijaną (“to spoil, kill, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to sunder, split, rend, tear”). Cognate with Dutch spillen (“to use needlessly, waste”), French gaspiller ("to waste, squander" < Germanic), Bavarian spillen (“to split, cleave, splinter”), Danish spilde (“to spill, waste”), Swedish spilla (“to spill, waste”), Icelandic spilla (“to contaminate, spoil”). See also spool.

Words from the same roots