Etymograph

English

cake

Cake comes from Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka, from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, whose origin is disputed.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kakǭ1‘cake’reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350kaka1‘cake’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cake1
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1697cake1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English cake
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1697, Virgil, The First Book of the Georgics: “Cakes of rustling ice come rolling down the flood.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kakǭWiktionary, English cake‘cake’reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350kakaWiktionary, English cake‘cake’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cakeWiktionary, English cake
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1697cakeWiktionary, English cake. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1697, Virgil, The First Book of the Georgics: “Cakes of rustling ice come rolling down the flood.”

The story

From Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka (‘cake’) (compare Norwegian kake, Icelandic/Swedish kaka, Danish kage), from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, of disputed origin.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it. Perhaps related to cookie, kuchen, and quiche.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *gag-

  • cookie ← koekje ← koek ← coeke ← *kuoko

4 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun A rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar, and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cake”. 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 *kakǭ / cake