hithit

Hit comes from Middle English hitten ‘to hit, strike’, from Old English hittan ‘to meet with, come upon’, from Old Norse hitta ‘to strike, meet’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną ‘to come upon, find’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kh₂eyd-¹‘to fall; fall upon; hit’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kh₂id-néh₂-ti¹reconstructed
3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hittijaną¹‘to come upon, find’reconstructed
4. Old Norsec. 800–1350hitta¹‘to strike, meet’
5. Old Englishc. 450–1150hittan¹‘to meet with, come upon’
6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hitten¹‘to hit’
7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592hit¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English hit
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew: “Thou hast hit it.”.