Etymograph

English

steam

Steam comes from Old English stēam, from Proto-Germanic *staumaz ‘steam, vapour’, from earlier *staubmaz, from *staubaz ‘dust’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*staubaz1‘dust’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*staumaz1‘steam, vapour’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150stēam1‘steam’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500steem1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590steam1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English steam
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto I: “like inward fire that outward smoke had steemd”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*staubazWiktionary, English steam‘dust’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*staumazWiktionary, English steam‘steam, vapour’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150stēamWiktionary, English steam‘steam’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500steemWiktionary, English steam
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1590steamWiktionary, English steam. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto I: “like inward fire that outward smoke had steemd”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- ‘to whirl, waft, stink, shake’

down, dye, funk, dew, dun, dune, duvet, dag, fume, thymus, fumigation, typhon, obfuscate, 27 more

Today it means

noun The hot gaseous form of water, formed when water changes from the liquid phase to the gas phase (at or above its boiling point temperature).

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “steam”. 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 *staubaz / steam

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