English
eke
Eke comes from Middle English eke ‘addition, increase’, from Old English ēaca ‘addition’, from Proto-Germanic *aukô ‘increase’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- ‘to increase, enlarge’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ewg-1‘to enlarge’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂éwg-e-ti1reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aukaną1‘to increase’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aukô1‘increase’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ēaca1‘addition’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500eke1‘addition’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590eke1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English eke
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto V: “Is not enough, that thruſt from heauen dew /…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂ewg-Wiktionary, English eke‘to enlarge’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂éwg-e-tiWiktionary, English ekereconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aukanąWiktionary, English eke‘to increase’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*aukôWiktionary, English eke‘increase’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150ēacaWiktionary, English eke‘addition’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ekeWiktionary, English eke‘addition’
- Englishearliest quotation 1590ekeWiktionary, English eke. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto V: “Is not enough, that thruſt from heauen dew /…”
The story
The noun is derived from Middle English eke (‘addition, increase, enlargement’), from Old English ēaca, from Proto-Germanic *aukô, from *aukaną (‘to increase, add, enlarge’), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- (‘to enlarge, increase’). The English noun is cognate with Old Frisian āka (‘addition, increase; bonus’), Old Norse auki (‘growth, increase, proliferation’). The English verb is cognate with Latin augeō (‘to augment, increase; to enlarge, expand, spread; to lengthen; to exaggerate; to enrich; to honour; (figuratively) to exalt, praise’), Old English ēac (‘also’), Old Norse auka (‘to augment, increase; to add; to exceed, surpass’), Icelandic auka (‘to augment, increase to add; to exceed, surpass’), (Danish øge (‘to enhance; to increase’), Norwegian Bokmål øke (‘to increase’), Norwegian Nynorsk auka (‘to increase’), Swedish öka (‘to increase’)).
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with eke, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewg- ‘to enlarge, increase’
- august ← auguste ← augustus ← *augostos ← *augos
- author ← auctour ← autour ← autor ← auctor
- auction ← auctiō ← augeō ← *augeō ← *augejō
- nickname ← neke name ← ekename ← ek ← ēac
- auxiliary ← auxiliārius ← auxilium ← *aug-s-illi- ← *augeō
- augment ← augmenten ← augmenter ← augmenter ← augmentare
- auteur ← autheur ← autor ← auctor ← augeō
11 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun An addition.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “eke”. 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.