Etymograph

English

gate

Gate comes from Old English ġeat (plural gatu), from Proto-West Germanic *gat, from Proto-Germanic *gatą ‘hole, opening’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gatą1‘hole, opening’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*gat1‘opening, gate’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġeat1‘gate, door’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gate1‘gate’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1870gate1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English gate
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1870, 1870 April, The Peking Gazettes: “At 7, he made his exit through the Ch‘ien-ch‘ing…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gatąWiktionary, English gate‘hole, opening’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*gatWiktionary, English gate‘opening, gate’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġeatWiktionary, English gate‘gate, door’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gateWiktionary, English gate‘gate’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1870gateWiktionary, English gate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1870, 1870 April, The Peking Gazettes: “At 7, he made his exit through the Ch‘ien-ch‘ing…”

Linked words

through Middle English gate

gait

Another origin of gate

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gatwǭ‘street, passage’reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350gata‘street, road’
  3. Englishtodaygate

Today it means

noun A doorlike structure outside a house.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “gate”. 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 *gatą / gate

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