Etymograph

English

again

Again comes from Old English onġēan ‘against, again’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *in gagin.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*in gagin1reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*in gagin1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150onġēan1‘against’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500agayn1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1485again1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English again
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur: “And here begynneth the treson of Kynge Marke that…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*in gaginWiktionary, English againreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*in gaginWiktionary, English againreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150onġēanWiktionary, English again‘against’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500agaynWiktionary, English again
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1485againWiktionary, English again. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur: “And here begynneth the treson of Kynge Marke that…”

A compound of *in ‘in’ + *gagin ‘towards, in the direction of’

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’

Proto-Germanic *in ‘in’

Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- ‘to walk’

Proto-Germanic *ganganą ‘to go, walk, step’

Proto-Germanic *gagin ‘towards, in the direction of’

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with again, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Middle English agayn

Explore everything descended from *in gagin →

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Today it means

adv Another time: indicating a repeat of an action.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “again”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *in gagin / again