Etymograph

English

fake

Fake is of uncertain origin (1775 criminals’ slang), probably from feague ‘to spruce up’, from Low German fegen, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *fegōn ‘to polish’.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fegōn1‘to clean up, polish’reconstructed
  2. Old Saxonc. 800–1200fegōn1
  3. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600vēgen1
  4. German Low Germanmodernfegen1
  5. English1500–presentfeague1‘to spruce up, embellish’uncertain
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1922fake1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English fake
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1922, Arthur Conan Doyle: “Among other interesting and weighty opinions, which were in…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fegōnWiktionary, English fake‘to clean up, polish’reconstructed
  2. Old Saxonc. 800–1200fegōnWiktionary, English fake
  3. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600vēgenWiktionary, English fake
  4. German Low GermanmodernfegenWiktionary, English fake
  5. English1500–presentfeagueWiktionary, English fake‘to spruce up, embellish’uncertain
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1922fakeWiktionary, English fake. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1922, Arthur Conan Doyle: “Among other interesting and weighty opinions, which were in…”

The story

The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 C.E. in British criminals' slang. It is probably from feak, feague (‘to give a better appearance through artificial means, spruce up, embellish’), itself from German Low German fegen, from Middle Low German vēgen, from Old Saxon fegōn, from Proto-West Germanic *fegōn (‘to clean up, polish’). Perhaps related also to Old Norse fjúka (‘to fade, vanquish, disappear’), Old Norse feikn (‘strange, scary, unnatural’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Explore everything descended from *fegōn →

Another origin of fake

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500faken‘to coil a rope’
  2. Englishtodayfake

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Today it means

adj Not real; false, fraudulent.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “fake”. 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-West Germanic *fegōn / fake