Etymograph

English

long

Long comes from Old English lang, long ‘long, tall, lasting’, from Proto-Germanic *langaz ‘long’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos ‘long’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dlongʰos1‘long’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*langaz1‘long’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*lang1‘long’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150lang1‘long, tall, lasting’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500long1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1596long1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English long
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book IIII, Canto IIII: “But Campbell thus did ſhut vp all in ieſt,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dlongʰosWiktionary, English long‘long’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*langazWiktionary, English long‘long’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*langWiktionary, English long‘long’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150langWiktionary, English long‘long, tall, lasting’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500longWiktionary, English long
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1596longWiktionary, English long. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book IIII, Canto IIII: “But Campbell thus did ſhut vp all in ieſt,…”

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos

  • lunge ← allonge ← alonge ← *allongare ← longare
  • elongate ← elongat ← ēlongātus ← ēlongō ← longus
  • elongation ← elongatio ← elongatus ← ēlongō ← longus

through Proto-Germanic *langaz

  • length ← lengthe ← lengþ ← *langiþu ← *langiþō
  • linger ← lengeren ← lenġan ← *langijan ← *langijaną

29 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of long

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dlongʰosreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*langazreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*langreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150lang
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150langeas longe‘long, for a long time’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500longe
  7. Englishtodaylong

Another origin of long

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*lengʷʰ-‘to be easy, be quick, jump, move around, vary’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*langōną‘to desire, long for’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*langōnreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150langian‘to long for, yearn after, grieve for, be pained, lengthen, grow longer, summon, belong’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500longen
  6. Englishtodaylong

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Today it means

adj Having much distance in space from one end to the other.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “long”. 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 *dlongʰos / long