wantwant

Want comes from Old Norse vanta ‘to lack’, from Proto-Germanic *wanatōną ‘to be wanting, lack’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ‘empty’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weh₂-¹‘empty; to leave, abandon’reconstructed
2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wanaz¹‘lacking, deficient’reconstructed
3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wanô¹‘lack, deficiency’reconstructed
4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wanatōną¹‘to be wanting, lack’reconstructed
5. Old Norsec. 800–1350vanta¹‘to lack’
6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wanten¹‘to lack, to need’
7. Englishearliest quotation 1591want¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English want
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1591, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]: “[H]eavens and honour be witness, that no want of…”.