Etymograph

English

gorge

Gorge comes from Old French gorge ‘throat’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- ‘to swallow, devour, eat’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷerh₃-1‘to swallow, devour, eat’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEgurga2
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gorge1‘throat’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gorge1‘esophagus, gullet’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590gorge1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English gorge
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old French gorge
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto I: “His gall did grate for griefe and high diſdaine,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷerh₃-Wiktionary, English gorge‘to swallow, devour, eat’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEgurgaWiktionary, Old French gorge
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gorgeWiktionary, English gorge‘throat’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gorgeWiktionary, English gorge‘esophagus, gullet’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590gorgeWiktionary, English gorge. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto I: “His gall did grate for griefe and high diſdaine,…”

The story

From Middle English gorge (‘esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten’), a borrowing from Old French gorge (‘throat’) (modern French gorge (‘throat; breast’)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (‘eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea’), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (‘to devour, swallow; to eat’). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (‘throat’), Italian gorga, gorgia (‘gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat’), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (‘gullet, throat; gorge’), Spanish gorja (‘gullet, throat; gorge’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- ‘to swallow, devour, eat’

devour, quirk, voracious, herbivorous, ouroboros, gurgle, 24 more

Another origin of gorge

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400gorger
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500gorgen‘to eat greedily’
  3. Englishtodaygorge

The verb is derived from Middle English gorgen (‘to eat greedily; to gorge’), a borrowing from Old French gorger, gorgier (modern French gorger (‘to eat greedily; to gorge’)), from gorge (‘throat’); see further at etymology 1. The noun is derived from the verb.

Today it means

noun The front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “gorge”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old French gorge. 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 *gʷerh₃- / gorge

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