Etymograph

English

soft

Soft comes from Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte, from Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) ‘level, smooth, gentle’.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*samft(ī)1‘level’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sōfte1
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500softe1‘soft’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1533soft1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English soft
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1533, William Tyndale: “The meek or soft shall inherit the earth.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*samft(ī)Wiktionary, English soft‘level’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150sōfteWiktionary, English soft
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500softeWiktionary, English soft‘soft’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1533softWiktionary, English soft. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1533, William Tyndale: “The meek or soft shall inherit the earth.”

The story

From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte, alteration of earlier sēfte (‘soft’), from Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) (‘level, even, smooth, soft, gentle’) (compare *sōmiz (‘agreeable, fitting’)), from Proto-Indo-European *semptio-, *semtio-, from *sem- (‘one, whole’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *sem- ‘one, whole’

  • same ← samr ← *samaz ← *somHós
  • some ← som ← sum ← *sum ← *sumaz
  • single ← sengle ← singulus
  • similar ← similaire ← similaris ← similis ← *semalis
  • seem ← semen ← sœma ← *sōmijaną
  • simple ← symple ← simplus
  • simply ← symply ← symple ← simple ← simplus
  • sam ← sammen ← samnian ← *samnōn ← *samnōną
  • simulation ← symulacioun ← simulātiōnem ← simulō ← similis
  • sincerely ← sincērus ← *senkairos
  • singular ← singuler ← singulāris ← singulus
  • resemble ← resemblen ← resembler

65 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Easily giving way under pressure.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “soft”. 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-West Germanic *samft(ī) / soft