Etymograph

English

lane

Lane comes from Middle English lane ‘lane, alley’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *lanō.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lanō1‘lane’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lanu1‘lane’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150lanu1‘a lane’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lane1‘lane’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1930lane1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English lane
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1930, Dominic Behan, Come Out Ye Black and Tans: “Tell her how the IRA made you run like…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lanōWiktionary, English lane‘lane’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lanuWiktionary, English lane‘lane’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150lanuWiktionary, English lane‘a lane’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500laneWiktionary, English lane‘lane’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1930laneWiktionary, English lane. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1930, Dominic Behan, Come Out Ye Black and Tans: “Tell her how the IRA made you run like…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *lanō

Today it means

noun A road, street, or similar thoroughfare.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “lane”. 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 *lanō / lane

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