Etymograph

English

we

We comes from Middle English we, from Old English wē, from Proto-Germanic *wīz, from PIE *wéy.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéy1‘we’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wīz1reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wiʀ1‘we’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wē1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500we1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1836we1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English we
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1836, Boz: ““Well, my dear ma’am, and how are we?” inquired…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéyWiktionary, English we‘we’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wīzWiktionary, English wereconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wiʀWiktionary, English we‘we’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wēWiktionary, English we
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500weWiktionary, English we
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1836weWiktionary, English we. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1836, Boz: ““Well, my dear ma’am, and how are we?” inquired…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with we, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *wéy ‘we (plural)’

  • us ← *uns ← *uns

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Today it means

pron Excluding the person(s) being addressed. (This is the exclusive we.)

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “we”. 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 *wéy / we