Etymograph

English

twin

Twin comes from Proto-Germanic *twinaz ‘double/two each, twin’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dwóh₁1‘two’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dwino-1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*twinaz1‘double/two each, twin’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġetwin1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500twinne1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1847twin1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English twin
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, Part 1: “Still we moved / Together, twinned, as horse's ear…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dwóh₁Wiktionary, English twin‘two’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dwino-Wiktionary, English twinreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*twinazWiktionary, English twin‘double/two each, twin’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150ġetwinWiktionary, English twin
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500twinneWiktionary, English twin
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1847twinWiktionary, English twin. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, Part 1: “Still we moved / Together, twinned, as horse's ear…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ‘two’

two, doubt, vice, defeat, dual, duo, vicious, diplomacy, binary, dubious, duet, bis, disparate, biceps, deuce, bes, twain, binocular, twig, betwixt, 21 more

Another origin of twin

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dwóh₁‘two’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*twīhnaz‘occurring in a pair’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150twin
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*twinreconstructed
  5. Englishtodaytwin

Today it means

noun Either of two people (or, less commonly, animals) who shared the same uterus at the same time; one who was born at the same birth as a sibling.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “twin”. 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 *dwóh₁ / twin

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