Etymograph

English

spider

Spider comes from Middle English spithre ‘a spider’, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną ‘to spin’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pénh₁-ne-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)pénh₁-ne-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spinnaną2‘to spin’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spinþrijō2reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150spīþra2
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spithre2‘a spider’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1805spider2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *spinnaną
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English spider
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1805, Songs for the Nursery: “Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)pénh₁-ne-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *spinnanąreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spinnanąWiktionary, English spider‘to spin’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spinþrijōWiktionary, English spiderreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150spīþraWiktionary, English spider
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spithreWiktionary, English spider‘a spider’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1805spiderWiktionary, English spider. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1805, Songs for the Nursery: “Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating…”

The story

Mostly displaced attercop (‘spider, unpleasant person’), now a dialectal term.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)pénh₁-ne-

spinner, spindle, spinster, spinel

through Proto-Germanic *spinnaną ‘to spin’

spin, span, 4 more

Today it means

noun Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “spider”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Proto-Germanic *spinnaną. 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-Indo-European *(s)pénh₁-ne- / spider

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