Etymograph

English

daily

Daily comes from Middle English dayly ‘constant, habitual’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *dagalīkaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dagalīkaz1reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dagalīk1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dæġlīċ1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dayly1‘constant’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1594daily1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English daily
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto): “The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det /…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dagalīkazWiktionary, English dailyreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dagalīkWiktionary, English dailyreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dæġlīċWiktionary, English daily
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500daylyWiktionary, English daily‘constant’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1594dailyWiktionary, English daily. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto): “The petty ſtreames that paie a dailie det /…”

Explore everything descended from *dagalīkaz →

Another origin of daily

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150*dæġlīċereconstructed
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dayly
  3. Englishtodaydaily

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Today it means

adj That occurs or attends every day, or at least every working day.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “daily”. 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 *dagalīkaz / daily