English
flood
Flood comes from Middle English flod ‘a river’, from Old English flōd ‘flowing of the tide’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)- ‘to swim, flow’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₃(w)-1‘to swim, flow’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flōduz1‘river’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*flōdu1‘river’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150flōd1‘flowing of the tide’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flod1‘a river; a waterbody that moves in one direction’
- Englishearliest quotation 1599flood1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English flood
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar: “There is a tide in the affairs of men,…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₃(w)-Wiktionary, English flood‘to swim, flow’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flōduzWiktionary, English flood‘river’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*flōduWiktionary, English flood‘river’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150flōdWiktionary, English flood‘flowing of the tide’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flodWiktionary, English flood‘a river; a waterbody that moves in one direction’
- Englishearliest quotation 1599floodWiktionary, English flood. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1599, The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar: “There is a tide in the affairs of men,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₃(w)- ‘to swim, flow’
Today it means
noun An overflow of a large amount of water (usually disastrous) from a lake or other body of water due to excessive rainfall or other input of water.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “flood”. 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 *pleh₃(w)- / flood