Etymograph

English

thousand

Thousand comes from Middle English thousend ‘a thousand’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *þūsundī.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þūsundī1reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*þūsundi1reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150þūsend1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thousend1‘a thousand’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1889thousand1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English thousand
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1889, Charles Taze Russell, The Time Is At Hand: “Three thousand years back in the Babylonian, Syrian, and…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*þūsundīWiktionary, English thousandreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*þūsundiWiktionary, English thousandreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150þūsendWiktionary, English thousand
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500thousendWiktionary, English thousand‘a thousand’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1889thousandWiktionary, English thousand. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1889, Charles Taze Russell, The Time Is At Hand: “Three thousand years back in the Babylonian, Syrian, and…”

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *þūsundī

Today it means

num A numerical value equal to 1,000; ten times a hundred (1 E+3 exactly—in scientific E notation)

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “thousand”. 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 *þūsundī / thousand

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