Etymograph

English

deal

Deal comes from Middle English del ‘a part, proportion or section of something’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *dailiz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dailiz1‘part’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*daili1‘part’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dǣl1‘part’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500del1‘a part’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1814deal1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English deal
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1814, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “There is a vast deal of difference in memories,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dailizWiktionary, English deal‘part’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dailiWiktionary, English deal‘part’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dǣlWiktionary, English deal‘part’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500delWiktionary, English deal‘a part’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1814dealWiktionary, English deal. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1814, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “There is a vast deal of difference in memories,…”

Word family

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

through Old English dǣl ‘part, share, portion’

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Another origin of deal

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dailiz‘part, portion, deal’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dailijaną‘to divide, part, deal’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dailijan‘to divide’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150dǣlan‘to divide, part’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500delen‘to assign individuals into lots or divisions’
  7. Englishtodaydeal

Another origin of deal

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þiljǭ‘plank, board’reconstructed
  2. Old Saxonc. 800–1200thili
  3. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600dele
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dele‘plank’
  5. Englishtodaydeal

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Today it means

noun A division, a portion, a share, a part, a piece.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “deal”. 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 *dailiz / deal