Etymograph

English

steel

Steel comes from Old English stīele, from Proto-West Germanic *stahlī, an enlargement of *stahl, from Proto-Germanic *stahlą ‘steel’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stahlą1‘steel’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*stahl1‘steel’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*stahlī1‘something made of steel’reconstructedenlargement of *stahl
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150stīele1‘steel’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stele1
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 725steel1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English steel
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 725, Corpus Gloss.: “Ocearium stæli.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*stahląWiktionary, English steel‘steel’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*stahlWiktionary, English steel‘steel’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*stahlīWiktionary, English steel‘something made of steel’reconstructedenlargement of *stahl
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150stīeleWiktionary, English steel‘steel’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500steleWiktionary, English steel
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 725steelWiktionary, English steel. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 725, Corpus Gloss.: “Ocearium stæli.”

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Today it means

noun An artificial metal produced from iron, harder and more elastic than elemental iron; used figuratively as a symbol of hardness.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “steel”. 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 *stahlą / steel