Etymograph

English

suck

Suck comes from Middle English souken ‘to breastfeed’, from Old English sūcan ‘to suck’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sewg-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sewg-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sūkaną1‘to suck’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sūkan1‘to suck’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sūcan1‘to suck’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500souken1‘to breastfeed’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588suck1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English suck
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “And ſince we all haue ſuckt on[e] wholſome aire,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sewg-Wiktionary, English suckreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sūkanąWiktionary, English suck‘to suck’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sūkanWiktionary, English suck‘to suck’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sūcanWiktionary, English suck‘to suck’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500soukenWiktionary, English suck‘to breastfeed’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588suckWiktionary, English suck. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “And ſince we all haue ſuckt on[e] wholſome aire,…”

Word family

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

through Proto-Indo-European *sewg-

  • sick ← sik ← sēoc ← *seuk ← *seukaz
  • suction ← sūctiō ← sūctus ← sūgō ← *sougō
  • succulent ← sūculentus ← sūcus ← *soukos
  • prosciutto ← asciutto ← *perexsūctus ← exsūctus ← exsūgō

through Proto-Germanic *sūkaną ‘to suck, suckle’

  • soak ← soken ← socian ← *sukōną

through Old English sūcan ‘to suck’

through Middle English souken ‘to suck out liquid or fluid’

11 more relatives in the full family tree

No ads, ever.

Become a founding member, $29 onceI have a code

Explore everything descended from *sewg- →

No ads, ever. This is how the app stays alive.

Become a founding member, $29 onceWear this word, $32Support the app

Today it means

noun An instance of drawing something into one's lungs by inhaling or into one's mouth by suction.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “suck”. 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 *sewg- / suck