Etymograph

English

dear

Dear comes from Old English dēore ‘of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved’, from Proto-West Germanic *diurī ‘valuable, precious’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*diurijaz1‘dear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*diurī1‘valuable’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēore1‘of great value or excellence’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dere1
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598dear1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English dear
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “There's more depends on this than on the value.…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*diurijazWiktionary, English dear‘dear’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*diurīWiktionary, English dear‘valuable’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēoreWiktionary, English dear‘of great value or excellence’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dereWiktionary, English dear
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598dearWiktionary, English dear. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “There's more depends on this than on the value.…”

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- ‘to burn’

  • day ← dæġ ← *dag ← *dagaz
  • dawn ← dawnen ← dawnynge ← dawen ← dagian
  • fever ← fefer ← febris ← *feɣʷris ← *dʰegʷʰ-ri-s
  • daw ← dawen ← dagian ← *dagēn ← *dagāną
  • febrile ← febrīlis ← febris ← *feɣʷris ← *dʰegʷʰ-ri-s
  • foment ← fomenten ← fomenter ← fōmentāre ← fōmentum

through Proto-Germanic *diurijaz ‘dear, precious’

  • darling ← dereling ← dīerling ← *diuriling ← *diurijalingaz

through Middle English dere

22 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of dear

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰwes-‘to breathe’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰews-ó-sreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*deuzaz‘wild, fierce, bold’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēor
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dere‘fierce, severe, hard, deadly’
  6. Englishtodaydear

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Today it means

adj High in price; expensive.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “dear”. 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 *diurijaz / dear