Etymograph

English

walk

Walk comes from Middle English walken, from Old English wealcan ‘to move around, roll’, from Proto-Germanic *walkaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welH-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*welH-1‘to roll’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walkaną1‘to roll, toss, turn; to walk’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walkan1reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wealcan1‘to move around, roll’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500walken1‘to roll, toss; to walk’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590walk1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English walk
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto IV: “her toung did walke / In fowle reproch.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*welH-Wiktionary, English walk‘to roll’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*walkanąWiktionary, English walk‘to roll, toss, turn; to walk’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*walkanWiktionary, English walkreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wealcanWiktionary, English walk‘to move around, roll’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500walkenWiktionary, English walk‘to roll, toss; to walk’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590walkWiktionary, English walk. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto IV: “her toung did walke / In fowle reproch.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *welH- ‘to roll, to undulate’

well, volume, revolution, evolution, involve, wall, vault, evolve, valve, revolt, vulgar, helix, convoluted, divulge, voluminous, vagrant, vulva, waltz, gauche, convolution, vulgate, iliac, ilium, involution, voluble, wale, valvular, valise, 75 more

Another origin of walk

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150*wealcreconstructed
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500walc
  3. Englishtodaywalk

Today it means

verb To move on the feet by alternately setting each foot (or pair or group of feet, in the case of animals with four or more feet) forward, with at least one foot on the ground at all times. Compare run.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “walk”. 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 *welH- / walk

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