Etymograph

English

verboten

Verboten comes from German verboten ‘banned, forbidden, prohibited’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- ‘to be awake, be aware’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰewdʰ-1‘to be awake, be aware’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*furibudanaz2reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*furibodan2reconstructed
  4. Old High Germanc. 750–1050firbotan2
  5. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350verboten2
  6. Germanc. 1650–presentverboten1‘banned, forbidden, prohibited’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2015verboten1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English verboten
  2. 2 Wiktionary, German verboten
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2015, Laura Kipnis, Sexual paranoia strikes academe: “Before that, students and professors could date whomever we…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰewdʰ-Wiktionary, English verboten‘to be awake, be aware’root named by Wiktionary
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*furibudanazWiktionary, German verbotenreconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*furibodanWiktionary, German verbotenreconstructed
  4. Old High Germanc. 750–1050firbotanWiktionary, German verboten
  5. Middle High Germanc. 1050–1350verbotenWiktionary, German verboten
  6. Germanc. 1650–presentverbotenWiktionary, English verboten‘banned, forbidden, prohibited’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 2015verbotenWiktionary, English verboten. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2015, Laura Kipnis, Sexual paranoia strikes academe: “Before that, students and professors could date whomever we…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- ‘to be awake, be aware’

body, bid, abode, bode, bede, beadle, 3 more

Today it means

adj (Strictly) forbidden or prohibited.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “verboten”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for German verboten. 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 *bʰewdʰ- / verboten

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