English
wide
Wide comes from Old English wīd ‘wide, vast, broad, long’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to divide, separate’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weydʰh₁-1‘to divide’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wīdaz1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wīd1‘wide’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500wid1
- Englishearliest quotation 1549wide1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English wide
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1549, Hughe Latymer [i.e.: “But I tell you, it is farre wyde, that…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁weydʰh₁-Wiktionary, English wide‘to divide’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wīdazWiktionary, English widereconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wīdWiktionary, English wide‘wide’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500widWiktionary, English wide
- Englishearliest quotation 1549wideWiktionary, English wide. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1549, Hughe Latymer [i.e.: “But I tell you, it is farre wyde, that…”
A compound of *dwi- ‘apart, asunder, in two’ + *dʰeh₁- ‘to do, put, place’
Proto-Indo-European *dwi- ‘apart, asunder, in two’
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do, put, place’
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with wide, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to divide, separate’
- division ← divisioun ← dīvīsiō ← dīvīsus ← dīvidō
- individual ← indīviduālis ← indīviduum ← indīviduus ← dīviduus
- wood ← wode ← wudu ← widu ← *widu
- device ← devis ← devis ← dīvīsus ← dīvidō
- divide ← dividen ← dīvidō ← *vidō ← *wiðō
- widow ← widwe ← widuwe ← *widuwā ← *widuwǭ
- devise ← devisen ← deviser ← devisō ← dīvīsus
- divisible ← divisibilis ← divido ← *vidō ← *wiðō
- fid ← *widus
12 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
adj Having a large physical extent from side to side.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “wide”. 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.