Etymograph

English

hornen

Hornen comes from Old English hyrnen ‘made of horn’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱerh₂-1‘horn, head, top’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hurną1‘horn’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*horn1reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150horn2
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150hyrnen3‘made of horn’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hornen3
  7. Englishtodayhornen3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English horn
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English hyrnen
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English hornen

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱerh₂-Wiktionary, Old English horn‘horn, head, top’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hurnąWiktionary, Old English horn‘horn’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hornWiktionary, Old English hornreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hornWiktionary, Old English hyrnen
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150hyrnenWiktionary, English hornen‘made of horn’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hornenWiktionary, English hornen
  7. EnglishtodayhornenWiktionary, English hornen

Formed from horn + -en

Middle English horn

English horn

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- ‘horn, head, top’

cheer, hart, cerebral, crater, grail, migraine, carotid, procrastinate, corny, cerebellum, cranium, cairn, keratin, cornea, cerebrum, cornet, rother, 51 more

through Old English horn

horning, 2 more

Today it means

adj Made of or consisting of horn; full of horns.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hornen”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Old English horn, Old English hyrnen. 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 *ḱerh₂- / hornen

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