Etymograph

English

shoot

Shoot comes from Old English scēotan ‘to shoot’, from Proto-Germanic *skeutaną ‘to shoot’, whose deeper origin is uncertain.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skeutaną1‘to shoot, dash’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skeutan1‘to shoot’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150scēotan1‘to shoot’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scheten1
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598shoot1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English shoot
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “If you please / To shoot an arrow that…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skeutanąWiktionary, English shoot‘to shoot, dash’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skeutanWiktionary, English shoot‘to shoot’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150scēotanWiktionary, English shoot‘to shoot’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schetenWiktionary, English shoot
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598shootWiktionary, English shoot. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “If you please / To shoot an arrow that…”

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kéwd-e-ti

  • cdi ← চুদা ← *𑀘𑁄𑀤𑁆𑀤𑀢𑀺 ← चोदति ← *čáwdati

through Proto-Germanic *skeutaną ‘to shoot, dash’

2 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To fire (a weapon that releases a bullet or other projectile).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “shoot”. 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 *skeutaną / shoot