east (English)

Where does "east" come from?

The English word 'east' descends from Middle English 'est', which came from Old English 'ēast'[1]. These forms trace back through Proto-West Germanic '*austr' and Proto-Germanic forms like '*austrą' and '*austraz'[1], all ultimately rooted in the Proto-Indo-European '*h₂éwsteros', meaning 'east'[1] or 'in the direction of dawn, east'[5]. This ancient term is built from a root meaning 'to dawn'[7].

Open questions

The intermediate steps connecting Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European forms rely on reconstructed historical linguistic stages. [1] [5] [7]

Full etymology tree

east (English), 'Situated or lying in or towards the east; eastward.'
- inherited est (Middle English), 'east, easternness'
  - inherited east (Old English), 'the east'
    - inherited *austr (Proto-West Germanic), 'eastern, easternly'
      - inherited *austrą (Proto-Germanic), 'east'
        derived *austraz (Proto-Germanic), 'east, eastern'
        inherited *h₂éwsteros (Proto-Indo-European), 'in the direction of dawn, east'
        derived *h₂éws-s ~ *h₂us-és (Proto-Indo-European)
        derived *h₂ews- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to become light'
        suffix *-teros (Proto-Indo-European), 'Contrastive or oppositional adjectival suffix.'

Ancestors

*h₂ews- (Proto-Indo-European)
est (Middle English)
east (Old English)
*austr (Proto-West Germanic)
*austrą (Proto-Germanic)
*austraz (Proto-Germanic)
*h₂éwsteros (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

oost (Dutch)
eystur (Faroese)
Ost (German)
austur (Icelandic)
auster (Latin)
uast (North Frisian)
øst (Norwegian Bokmål)
aust (Norwegian Nynorsk)
Aaste (Saterland Frisian)
aist (Scots)
ost (Swedish)
east (West Frisian)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris