Etymology

waybread

W4A1Y4B3R1E1A1D2

Today it means: The Eurasian plantain (Plantago major). Full definition →

Middle English weybrede ← Old English weġbrǣde
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromweġbrǣde
  2. Middle English · inherited fromweybrede
  3. English todaywaybread

From Middle English weybrede, from Old English weġbrǣde, weġbrāde (“waybread, plantain, dock”), equivalent to way + bread (“broadness, breadth”). Cognate with Scots waybred (“waybread”), Dutch weegbree (“waybread”), German Wegebreit (“waybread”), Danish vejbred (“waybread”), Swedish vägbreda (“waybread”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.