Etymograph

English

tocleave

Tocleave comes from Old English tōclēofan ‘to split apart, cleave asunder’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *tōkliubaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*tōkliubaną1‘to split apart’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150tōclēofan1‘to split apart, cleave asunder’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tocleven1
  4. Englishtodaytocleave1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English tocleave

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*tōkliubanąWiktionary, English tocleave‘to split apart’reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150tōclēofanWiktionary, English tocleave‘to split apart, cleave asunder’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500toclevenWiktionary, English tocleave
  4. EnglishtodaytocleaveWiktionary, English tocleave

Formed from to- + cleave ‘to split’

Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ‘two’

Proto-Indo-European *dwís ‘two-ways, in twain’

Proto-Germanic *twiz- ‘apart, in two’

Proto-West Germanic *tō-

English to-

Proto-Indo-European *glewbʰ- ‘to cut, to slice’

Proto-Germanic *kleubaną ‘to split, to cleave’

Proto-West Germanic *kleuban ‘to split, to cleave’

Old English clēofan

Middle English cleven ‘to slice at’

English cleave

Every English word from Proto-Germanic *tōkliubaną

Today it means

verb To divide; split open; cleave asunder.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tocleave”. 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 *tōkliubaną / tocleave

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