Etymograph

English

hut

Hut comes from Old English hōd ‘hood’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *hōdaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hōdaz1‘hood’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hōd1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150hōd2‘hood’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*hutte2reconstructed
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1625hut2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English hod
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English hut
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1625, Nicholas Breton, An Untrained Souldiour: “And in his Hut, when hee to rest doth…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hōdazWiktionary, Old English hod‘hood’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hōdWiktionary, Old English hodreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150hōdWiktionary, English hut‘hood’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*hutteWiktionary, English hutreconstructed
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1625hutWiktionary, English hut. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1625, Nicholas Breton, An Untrained Souldiour: “And in his Hut, when hee to rest doth…”

The story

From Middle English *hutte, hotte, from both Old English hōd and Old English hȳdan (‘to hide’) and influenced by Anglo-Norman hute or hutte, from Middle French hutte, from Old French hute (‘hut’), hute (‘cottage’), from Old High German hutta (‘hut, cottage’), from Proto-Germanic *hudjǭ, *hudjō (‘hut’), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewt- (‘to deck; cover; covering; skin’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- ‘to cover, protect’

heed, 3 more

through Old English hōd ‘hood’

hood, 1 more

Today it means

noun A small, simple one-storey dwelling or shelter, often with just one room, and generally built of readily available local materials.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hut”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English hod. 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-Germanic *hōdaz / hut

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