Etymograph

English

withsake

Withsake comes from Old English wiþsacan ‘to forsake, abandon, renounce, refuse, deny,…’, from sacan ‘to fight’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- ‘to seek out’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂g-1‘to seek out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sakaną2‘to charge, dispute’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sakan2‘to fight, quarrel’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sacan3‘to fight’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150wiþsacan4‘to forsake, abandon, renounce, refuse, deny, oppose, drive against’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500withsaken4
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1852withsake4

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *sakaną
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English sacan
  3. 3 Wiktionary, Old English wiþsacan
  4. 4 Wiktionary, English withsake
  5. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1852, Alfred: “Well! the king then openly declared to the priest…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*seh₂g-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *sakaną‘to seek out’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sakanąWiktionary, Old English sacan‘to charge, dispute’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sakanWiktionary, Old English sacan‘to fight, quarrel’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sacanWiktionary, Old English wiþsacan‘to fight’
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150wiþsacanWiktionary, English withsake‘to forsake, abandon, renounce, refuse, deny, oppose, drive against’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500withsakenWiktionary, English withsake
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1852withsakeWiktionary, English withsake. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1852, Alfred: “Well! the king then openly declared to the priest…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- ‘to seek out’

seek, soc, hegemony, beseech, saya, hegemon, presage, sagittal, sagacity, 18 more

through Proto-Germanic *sakaną ‘to charge, dispute’

sucker

through Proto-West Germanic *sakan ‘to fight, quarrel’

forsake

Today it means

verb To forsake; abandon; renounce; deny; refuse.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “withsake”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Proto-Germanic *sakaną, Old English sacan, Old English wiþsacan. 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 *seh₂g- / withsake

Shirt and support for this word