Etymograph

English

woodruff

Woodruff comes from Old English wudu ‘wood’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *widʰu- ‘tree, beam’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*widʰu-1‘tree, beam’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*widuz1‘wood’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wudu2‘wood’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wudurofe2
  5. Englishtodaywoodruff2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Old English wudu
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English woodruff

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*widʰu-Wiktionary, Old English wudu‘tree, beam’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*widuzWiktionary, Old English wudu‘wood’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wuduWiktionary, English woodruff‘wood’
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150wudurofeWiktionary, English woodruff
  5. EnglishtodaywoodruffWiktionary, English woodruff

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *widuz ‘wood’

guy, 2 more

Today it means

noun Galium odoratum, an aromatic herb.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “woodruff”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English wudu. 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 *widʰu- / woodruff

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