Etymology

where

W4H4E1R1E1

Today it means: In, at or to what place. Full definition →

Middle English wher ← Old English hwǣr ← Proto-West Germanic *hwār
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kʷ-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*kʷís
  3. Proto-Germanic*hwaz
  4. Proto-Germanic*hwar
  5. Proto-West Germanic*hwār
  6. Old Englishhwǣr
  7. Middle Englishwher
  8. English todaywhere

From Middle English wher, from Old English hwǣr (“where”, literally “at what place”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwār, from Proto-Germanic *hwar (“where”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- (interrogative pronoun).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*kʷ- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.