English
buy
Buy comes from Middle English byen, from Old English bycġan ‘to buy’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bugjaną ‘to buy’, of uncertain origin.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bugjaną1‘to buy’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*buggjan1‘to buy’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150bycġan1‘to buy’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500byen1‘to buy’
- Englishearliest quotation 1593buy1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English buy
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […]: “VVhat villaine, doſt ſtrike me? I ſweare by the…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bugjanąWiktionary, English buy‘to buy’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*buggjanWiktionary, English buy‘to buy’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150bycġanWiktionary, English buy‘to buy’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500byenWiktionary, English buy‘to buy’
- Englishearliest quotation 1593buyWiktionary, English buy. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […]: “VVhat villaine, doſt ſtrike me? I ſweare by the…”
The story
The spelling with “u” is from the Southwest, while the pronunciation with /aɪ/ is from the East Midlands.
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with buy, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰewgʰ- ‘to bend’
3 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
verb To obtain (something) in exchange for money or goods.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “buy”. 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 *bugjaną / buy