Etymograph

English

cow

Cow comes from Middle English cow ‘a cow’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷṓws1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kōz1reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kō1reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150cū1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cow1‘a cow’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1933cow1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English cow
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1933, George Orwell pseudonym; Eric Arthur Bla, London: Victor Gollancz […]: “[…] the worst insult to a woman, either in…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷṓwsWiktionary, English cowreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kōzWiktionary, English cowreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kōWiktionary, English cowreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150cūWiktionary, English cow
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cowWiktionary, English cow‘a cow’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1933cowWiktionary, English cow. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1933, George Orwell pseudonym; Eric Arthur Bla, London: Victor Gollancz […]: “[…] the worst insult to a woman, either in…”

The story

The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (‘cows’), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (‘cows’), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cūna (‘cows', of cows’), genitive plural of cū (‘cow’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws

  • beef ← beof ← bovem ← *gʷōs
  • buffalo ← búfalo ← būfalus ← būbalus ← βούβαλος
  • boa ← *gʷouā ← *gʷówyeh₂ ← *gʷówyos
  • bovine ← bovīnus ← bōs ← *gʷōs
  • bugle ← būculus ← bōs ← *gʷōs
  • bulimia ← βουλῑμῐ́ᾱ ← βούλῑμος ← λῑμός ← βοῦς
  • gopi ← गोपी ← गोप ← गो ← *gā́wṣ
  • boeuf ← bœuf ← bœuf ← buef ← bovem
  • bucolic ← būcolicus ← βουκολικός ← βουκόλος ← *gʷoukólos

through Old English cū

  • kye ← ky ← cȳ
  • kie ← ky ← cȳ

9 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of cow

  1. Old Norsec. 800–1350kúga‘to oppress’uncertain
  2. Englishtodaycow

Probably from Old Norse kúga (‘to oppress’) (whence also Norwegian and Danish kue, Swedish kuva); compare Icelandic kúfa (‘to set on top’) and Faroese kúga (‘to oppress’).

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Today it means

noun An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “cow”. 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-Indo-European *gʷṓws / cow