Etymograph

English

deem

Deem comes from Middle English dēmen ‘to judge’, from Old English dēman ‘to decide, decree, deem’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to set, put’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-1‘to set, put’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dōmijaną1‘to judge, think’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dōmijan1‘to judge, deem’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēman1‘to decide, decree, deem’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dēmen1‘to judge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1593deem1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English deem
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey]: “It may ſeeme a rude diſpoſition that ſorteth not…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-Wiktionary, English deem‘to set, put’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dōmijanąWiktionary, English deem‘to judge, think’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dōmijanWiktionary, English deem‘to judge, deem’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150dēmanWiktionary, English deem‘to decide, decree, deem’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dēmenWiktionary, English deem‘to judge’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1593deemWiktionary, English deem. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey]: “It may ſeeme a rude diſpoſition that ſorteth not…”

The story

The word is cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål dømme (‘to judge’), Dutch doemen (‘to condemn, foredoom’), North Frisian dema (‘to judge, recognise’), Norwegian Nynorsk døma (‘to judge’), Swedish döma (‘to judge, sentence, condemn’), Finnish tuomita (‘to judge’). It is also related to doom.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to set, put’

do, fact, hot, fair, deal, fan, benefit, fashion, feature, mid, defense, custom, ethnic, sufficient, theme, defence, treasury, treasure, ethical, thesis, aesthetic, feast, synthetic, theology, doom, tick, defendant, dis, atheist, ethic, auditorium, auditor, atheism, ethos, forfeit, feral, fanatic, familial, medial, medallion, 128 more

Today it means

verb To hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs; to account.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “deem”. 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 *dʰeh₁- / deem

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