The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ḱwey-“to hiss, whistle, whisper”
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*hwīnaną
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*hwīnan
- Old English · inherited fromhwīnan“to rush, to whizz, to squeal, to whine”
- Middle English · inherited fromwhynen
- English todaywhine
From Middle English whynen, hwinen, whinen, from Old English hwīnan (“to rush, to whizz, to squeal, to whine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwīnan, from Proto-Germanic *hwīnaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwey- (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”). Cognate with Old Norse hvína, whence Icelandic hvína, Norwegian Nynorsk kvina, Swedish vina, and Danish hvine. Despite the strong similarity in sound and meaning, not related with German weinen, Dutch wenen, from Proto-Germanic *wainōną (for which see dialectal English ween (“to weep, lament”)).
Words from the same roots
Proto-West Germanic*hwīnan all →
whinge
Proto-Indo-European*ḱwey- all →
whinge
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.