Etymograph

English

mind

Mind comes from Old English mynd ‘mind, memory’, from Proto-Indo-European *méntis ‘thought’, and ultimately from *men- ‘to think’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*men-1‘to think’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*méntis1‘thought’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mundiz1‘memory’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mundi1reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150mynd1‘mind’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500minde1
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1503–1512mind1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English mind
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood: “I fortuned to come in, Thys rebell to behold,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*men-Wiktionary, English mind‘to think’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*méntisWiktionary, English mind‘thought’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*mundizWiktionary, English mind‘memory’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*mundiWiktionary, English mindreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150myndWiktionary, English mind‘mind’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mindeWiktionary, English mind
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1503–1512mindWiktionary, English mind. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood: “I fortuned to come in, Thys rebell to behold,…”

The story

Related also to Danish minde (‘memory’), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish minne (‘memory’), Faroese and Icelandic minni (‘memory, recall, recollection’), Latin mēns (‘mind, reason’), Sanskrit मनस् (mánas), Ancient Greek μένος (ménos), Albanian mënd (‘mind, reason’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *men- ‘to think’

  • money ← moneye ← muneie ← monoie ← moneie
  • music ← musik ← musik ← mūsica ← μουσική
  • amount ← amounten ← amonter ← amont ← mont
  • comment ← coment ← coment ← commentum
  • mouth ← mūþ ← *munþ ← *munþaz ← *mn̥-tó-s
  • mention ← mencioun ← mentiōnem ← mentiō ← meminī
  • museum ← Μουσεῖον ← Μοῦσᾰ
  • permanent ← permanēns ← permaneō ← maneō ← *m̥néh₁yeti
  • remain ← remainen ← remaneō ← maneō ← *m(V)nēō
  • mountain ← mountayne ← muntaine ← montānia ← montem
  • monster ← monstre ← monstre ← mōnstrum ← *monestrom
  • auto ← automatic ← automaticus ← automatum ← αὐτόμᾰτον

154 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

noun The capability for rational thought.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “mind”. 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 *men- / mind