Etymograph

English

side

Side comes from Old English sīde ‘side, flank’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *sīdaz ‘drooping, hanging down, pendulous, long,…’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdaz1‘drooping’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdǭ1‘side’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sīde1‘side’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500side1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590side1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English side
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto IX: “His blind eye that syded Paridell.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdazWiktionary, English side‘drooping’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdǭWiktionary, English side‘side’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150sīdeWiktionary, English side‘side’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sideWiktionary, English side
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590sideWiktionary, English side. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto IX: “His blind eye that syded Paridell.”

The story

From Middle English side, from Old English sīde (‘side, flank’), from Proto-Germanic *sīdǭ (‘side, flank, edge, shore’), derived from *sīdaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- (‘long, lasting’). The LGBTQ slang sense was coined by sex therapist and author Joe Kort in 2010 and popularized in 2013. The sense was coined by analogy with top and bottom and based on the metaphor of a box which has a top, bottom, and sides.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- ‘long, lasting’

  • season ← sesoun ← seson ← satiō ← satum
  • since ← syns ← sithen ← sīþþan ← þǣm
  • earn ← ernen ← earnian ← *aʀanōn ← *azanōną
  • seed ← sēd ← *sād ← *sēdą
  • seminar ← sēminārium ← sēmen ← *sēmn̥ ← *séh₁mn̥
  • semen
  • sow ← sowen ← sāwan ← *sāan ← *sēaną
  • serene ← serein ← serein ← *serānum ← sērus
  • seminal ← sēminālis ← sēmen ← *sēmn̥ ← *séh₁mn̥
  • sower ← sowere ← sāwere ← sāwan ← *sāan

16 more relatives in the full family tree

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Another origin of side

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sēy-‘to send, throw, drop, sow, deposit’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sīdaz‘drooping, hanging, low, excessive, extra’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sīdreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sīd‘wide, broad, spacious, ample, extensive, vast, far-reaching’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500side
  6. Englishtodayside

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Today it means

noun A bounding straight edge of a two-dimensional shape.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “side”. 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 *sīdaz / side