Etymograph

English

heavy

Heavy comes from Middle English hevy ‘having great weight’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kap- ‘to take, grasp, hold’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kap-1‘to take’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*habīgaz1‘heavy’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*habīg1‘heavy’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hefiġ1‘heavy’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hevy1‘having great weight’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596heavy1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English heavy
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “whilst the heavy ploughman snores”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kap-Wiktionary, English heavy‘to take’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*habīgazWiktionary, English heavy‘heavy’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*habīgWiktionary, English heavy‘heavy’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hefiġWiktionary, English heavy‘heavy’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hevyWiktionary, English heavy‘having great weight’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1595–1596heavyWiktionary, English heavy. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame: “whilst the heavy ploughman snores”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with heavy, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *kap- ‘to take, grasp, hold’

  • had ← hadde ← hæfde ← *habdaz ← *habjaną
  • case ← casse ← capsa ← *kapsos ← *kapjō
  • except ← excepter ← exceptus ← excipiō
  • capital ← capitale ← capitulum ← caput ← *kaput
  • cash ← caisse ← caissa ← capsa ← capiō
  • captain ← capitain ← capitaine ← capitāneus ← caput
  • catch ← cacchen ← cachier
  • accept ← accepten ← accepter ← acceptō ← capiō
  • receive ← receyven ← receivre ← recipere ← capiō
  • head ← efd ← hēafod ← *haubud ← *haubudą
  • capacity ← capacite ← capacite ← capācitās
  • chapter ← chapitre ← chapitre ← capitulum ← caput

205 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Having great weight.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “heavy”. 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 *kap- / heavy