Etymograph

English

learning

Learning comes from Old English leornung ‘learning, study’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *liʀnungu.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*liʀnungu1reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150leornung1‘learning’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lernyng1
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2007learning1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English learning
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Stuart Elliott, Online Experiment for Print Magazine: ““We’ll take the learnings and apply them to the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*liʀnunguWiktionary, English learningreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150leornungWiktionary, English learning‘learning’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lernyngWiktionary, English learning
  4. Englishearliest quotation 2007learningWiktionary, English learning. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Stuart Elliott, Online Experiment for Print Magazine: ““We’ll take the learnings and apply them to the…”

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Today it means

noun An act in which something is learned.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “learning”. 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-West Germanic *liʀnungu / learning