Etymograph

English

well

Well comes from Middle English wel ‘well, amazingly, expertly’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *wela.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wela1reconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150wel1‘well’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wel1‘well’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1610–1611well1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English well
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, The Winters Tale: “Paulina. As she liu'd peerelesse, So her dead likenesse…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*welaWiktionary, English wellreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150welWiktionary, English well‘well’
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500welWiktionary, English well‘well’
  4. Englishearliest quotation c. 1610–1611wellWiktionary, English well. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, The Winters Tale: “Paulina. As she liu'd peerelesse, So her dead likenesse…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- ‘wish, desire’

will, volunteer, benevolent, malevolent, volition, voluptuous, wale, malevolence, 11 more

through Proto-Germanic *wela

gallant, 5 more

Another origin of well

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*welH-‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wallijǭ‘well, swirl, wave’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wallijā‘welling, bubbling, overflowing’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wielle
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500welle‘a well’
  6. Englishtodaywell

Another origin of well

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wallijanąreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wallijan‘to (cause to) well up, well over, boil’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wiellan‘to boil’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wellen‘to boil, to bubble’
  5. Englishtodaywell

Today it means

adv Accurately, competently, satisfactorily.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “well”. 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-Germanic *wela / well

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