English
raw
Raw comes from Old English hrēaw ‘raw, uncooked’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krewh₂-1‘raw meat’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hrawaz1‘raw’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hrau1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hrēaw1‘raw’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rawe1
- Englishearliest quotation 1596raw1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English raw
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book V, Canto II: “with scull all raw”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krewh₂-Wiktionary, English raw‘raw meat’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hrawazWiktionary, English raw‘raw’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hrauWiktionary, English rawreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150hrēawWiktionary, English raw‘raw’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500raweWiktionary, English raw
- Englishearliest quotation 1596rawWiktionary, English raw. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book V, Canto II: “with scull all raw”
The story
Related also to Old English hrēow, hrēoh (‘rough, fierce, wild, angry, disturbed, troubled, sad, stormy, tempestuous’).
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with raw, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂- ‘raw meat, fresh blood’
7 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
adj (of food) Not cooked.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “raw”. 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.