Etymograph

English

gateau

Gateau comes from French gâteau ‘a sponge cake, i.e. a cake made with a…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wes- ‘to eat’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wes-1‘to eat’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wastilaz1reconstructed
  3. Frankishc. 250–700*wastil1reconstructed
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gastel1‘round cake, loaf of bread, wastel’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600gasteau1
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentgâteau2‘a sponge cake, i.e. a cake made with a chemical leavening agent, making it light and airy’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2009gateau2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, French gâteau
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English gateau
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2009, Dorothy Cannell, She Shoots to Conquer: “Determined on keeping up my strength for what the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wes-Wiktionary, French gâteau‘to eat’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wastilazWiktionary, French gâteaureconstructed
  3. Frankishc. 250–700*wastilWiktionary, French gâteaureconstructed
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gastelWiktionary, French gâteau‘round cake, loaf of bread, wastel’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600gasteauWiktionary, French gâteau
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentgâteauWiktionary, English gateau‘a sponge cake, i.e. a cake made with a chemical leavening agent, making it light and airy’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2009gateauWiktionary, English gateau. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2009, Dorothy Cannell, She Shoots to Conquer: “Determined on keeping up my strength for what the…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *wes- ‘to eat’

wear, invest, vest, bison, venal, vend, basmati, 24 more

Today it means

noun A rich, usually iced, cake.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “gateau”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for French gâteau. 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 *wes- / gateau

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