Etymology

when

W4H4E1N1

Today it means: At what time? At which time? Upon which occasion or circumstance? Used to introduce direct or indirect questions about time. Full definition →

Middle English when(ne) ← Old English hwonne ← Proto-West Germanic *hwannē
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kʷís
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hwan“at what time, when”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hwan
  4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hwannē
  5. Old English · inherited fromhwonne
  6. Middle English · inherited fromwhen(ne)
  7. English todaywhen

From Middle English when(ne), whan(ne), from Old English hwonne, from Proto-West Germanic *hwannē, from Proto-West Germanic *hwan, from Proto-Germanic *hwan (“at what time, when”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷís (interrogative base). Cognate with Scots whan (“when”), Dutch wanneer (“when”), wan (“when”) and wen (“when, if”), Low German wannehr (“when”), wann (“when”) and wenn (“if, when”), German wann (“when”) and wenn (“when, if”), Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌽 (ƕan, “when, how”), Latin quandō (“when”). More at who. Interjection sense: a playful misunderstanding of "say when" (i.e. say something / speak up when you want me to stop) as "say [the word] when".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.