Etymograph

English

treader

Treader comes from Middle English tredere.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tredere1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1958treader1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English treader
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1958, Dominic Reeve, Smoke in the Lanes: “Why, he weren’t no more’n knocked offen his treader.…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tredereWiktionary, English treader
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1958treaderWiktionary, English treader. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1958, Dominic Reeve, Smoke in the Lanes: “Why, he weren’t no more’n knocked offen his treader.…”

Formed from tread + -er

Proto-Germanic *trudaną ‘to tread, to step on’

Proto-West Germanic *tredan ‘to tread’

Old English tredan ‘to tread’

Middle English treden ‘to stomp or walk with great force’

English tread

Every English word from Middle English tredere

Today it means

noun One who treads.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “treader”. 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 / Middle English tredere / treader

Shirt and support for this word