English
worry
Worry comes from Old English wyrġan ‘to strangle’, from Proto-Germanic *wurgijaną ‘to strangle’, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- ‘to bind’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*werǵʰ-1‘to bind, squeeze’uncertain
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wurgijaną1‘to strangle’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wurgijan1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wyrġan1‘to strangle’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500worien1‘to choke, strangle’
- Englishearliest quotation 1784worry1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English worry
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1784, The House that Jack Built: “This is the Dog, that worried the Cat, that…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*werǵʰ-Wiktionary, English worry‘to bind, squeeze’uncertain
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wurgijanąWiktionary, English worry‘to strangle’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wurgijanWiktionary, English worryreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150wyrġanWiktionary, English worry‘to strangle’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500worienWiktionary, English worry‘to choke, strangle’
- Englishearliest quotation 1784worryWiktionary, English worry. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1784, The House that Jack Built: “This is the Dog, that worried the Cat, that…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with worry, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
Explore everything descended from *werǵʰ- →
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Today it means
verb To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “worry”. 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 *werǵʰ- / worry