Etymograph

English

forbode

Forbode comes from Old English forbod ‘a forbidding, prohibition’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- ‘to be awake, fully perceive’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰewdʰ-1‘to be awake, fully perceive’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frabudą1‘prohibition’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150forbod1‘a forbidding, prohibition’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500forbode1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1621forbode1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English forbode
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1621, Henry Ainsworth, Annotations Upon the First Book of Moses: “So Moses himself explaineth it in the words here…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰewdʰ-Wiktionary, English forbode‘to be awake, fully perceive’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*frabudąWiktionary, English forbode‘prohibition’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150forbodWiktionary, English forbode‘a forbidding, prohibition’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500forbodeWiktionary, English forbode
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1621forbodeWiktionary, English forbode. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1621, Henry Ainsworth, Annotations Upon the First Book of Moses: “So Moses himself explaineth it in the words here…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- ‘to be awake, fully perceive’

body, bid, beadle, abode, bede, verboten, 3 more

Today it means

noun A forbidding, a prohibition; a command forbidding a thing.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “forbode”. 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 *bʰewdʰ- / forbode

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