Etymograph

English

log

Log comes from Middle English logge ‘large long stick, staff, pole, log’.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500logge1‘large long stick’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1968log1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English log
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1968, Paper Converting Machine Co., Inc. V. FMC Corporation: “3. An apparatus for cutting a log of paper…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500loggeWiktionary, English log‘large long stick’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1968logWiktionary, English log. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1968, Paper Converting Machine Co., Inc. V. FMC Corporation: “3. An apparatus for cutting a log of paper…”

The story

From Middle English logge, logg (first recorded in Anglo-Latin as loggum), of uncertain origin, but probably from Old Norse lóg, lág (‘felled tree, log’), derived from Old Norse liggja (‘to lie’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. However the Old Norse/Middle Norwegian vowel is long while Middle English vowel is short.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with log, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- ‘to lie’

  • college ← collēgium ← collēga ← lēgō ← lēx
  • legal ← lēgālis ← lex ← *lēks ← *lḗgʰs
  • lawyer ← lawiere ← lawe ← lagu ← *lagu
  • fellow ← felawe ← fēolaga ← félagi ← félag
  • layer ← leyer
  • legacy ← legacie ← legacie ← lēgātum ← lēgō
  • colleague ← collegue ← collēga ← lēgō ← lēx
  • delegation ← delegatio ← dēlēgō ← lēgō ← lēx
  • loyalty ← loialte ← loialte ← loial ← lēgālis
  • loyal ← loial ← lēgālis ← lex ← *lēks
  • litter ← lectus
  • delegate ← delegat ← delegat ← dēlēgātus ← nominative

48 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of log

  1. Egyptianc. 3200 BCE–600 CEʿrq
  2. Hebrew1880s–presentלֹג‘a unit of liquid measurement’
  3. Englishtodaylog

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Today it means

noun The trunk of a dead tree, cleared of branches.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “log”. 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 / Middle English logge / log