Etymograph

English

dumb

Dumb comes from Old English dumb ‘silent, mute’, from Proto-Germanic *dumbaz ‘dull, dumb’, whose deeper origin is disputed.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dumbaz1‘dull’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dumb1‘dumb’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dumb1‘silent’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dumb1‘silent’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591dumb1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English dumb
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dumbazWiktionary, English dumb‘dull’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*dumbWiktionary, English dumb‘dumb’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150dumbWiktionary, English dumb‘silent’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dumbWiktionary, English dumb‘silent’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1591dumbWiktionary, English dumb. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The First Part of Henry the Sixt: “Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak…”

The story

The senses of stupid, unintellectual, and pointless, which are found regularly since the 19th century only, probably developed under the influence of German dumm and Dutch dom. Just like the English word, these originally meant "lacking the power of speech", but they developed the mentioned senses early on.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- ‘to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure’

deep, bottom, fund, foundation, depth, founder, dave, dip, deaf, fond, bot, dove, bourne, dub, butte, typhus, doof, 23 more

Another origin of dumb

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰewbʰ-‘to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*dumbijanąreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150*dumbianreconstructed
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dumben‘to make no sound or movement’
  5. Englishtodaydumb

Today it means

adj Unable to speak; lacking power of speech.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “dumb”. 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 *dumbaz / dumb

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