Etymograph

English

sand

Sand comes from Middle English sand, from Old English sand, from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*samdaz1‘sand’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*samd1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sand1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sand1
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592sand1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English sand
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “The sands are numbered that make up my life.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*samdazWiktionary, English sand‘sand’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*samdWiktionary, English sandreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sandWiktionary, English sand
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sandWiktionary, English sand
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1592sandWiktionary, English sand. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “The sands are numbered that make up my life.”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *samdaz

Another origin of sand

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sanden
  2. Englishtodaysand

Today it means

noun Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sand”. 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-Germanic *samdaz / sand

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