Etymology

wisdom

wis·dom
W4I1S1D2O1M3

Today it means: An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise. Full definition →

Middle English wisdom ← Old English wīsdōm ← Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*wīsadōmaz“wisdom”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wīsadōm
  3. Old English · inherited fromwīsdōm“wisdom”
  4. Middle English · inherited fromwisdom
  5. English todaywisdom

From Middle English wisdom, from Old English wīsdōm (“wisdom”), from Proto-West Germanic *wīsadōm, from Proto-Germanic *wīsadōmaz (“wisdom”), corresponding to wise + -dom. Cognate with Scots wisdom, wysdom (“wisdom”), West Frisian wiisdom (“wisdom”), Dutch wijsdom (“wisdom”), German Weistum (“legal sentence”), Danish/Norwegian/Swedish visdom (“wisdom”), Icelandic vísdómur (“wisdom”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*wīsadōmaz all →

unwisdom

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.