enough (English)

Where does "enough" come from?

The English word 'enough' descends from the Middle English 'ynogh'[1][3] and the Old English 'ġenōg'[1][2]. These forms share a common ancestry in the Proto-Germanic term '*ganōgaz'[1][2][4], which combined the prefix 'ga-' with a root ultimately traceable to the Proto-Indo-European '*h₂eh₂nó(n)ḱe'[1][6]. This ancient root signified 'he has reached, attained'[1][4] or to reach, suggesting that the original sense of the word was something that has reached or sufficed. The word reflects a long history of linguistic development across Germanic languages, with cognates appearing in Scots as 'eneuch' and in Dutch as 'genoeg' among others, all rooted in the concept of attaining or fulfilling a need.

Open questions

The Proto-Germanic root '*nōgaz' has no attested descendants and its formation remains a reconstruction. [4]
The verb '*nuganą' also lacks attested descendants in the Germanic record. [7]
The Proto-Indo-European root '*h₂neḱ-' has been historically conflated with another similar root by some scholars. [5]

Full etymology tree

enough (English), 'Sufficiently.'
- inherited ynogh (Middle English), 'enough'
  - inherited genog (Old English), 'enough, sufficient'
    - inherited *ganōg (Proto-West Germanic)
      - inherited *ganōgaz (Proto-Germanic), 'enough, sufficient'
        compound *ga- (Proto-Germanic), 'Indicates association or togetherness; co-.'
        compound *nōgaz (Proto-Germanic)
        derived *h₂eh₂nó(n)ḱe (Proto-Indo-European)
        derived *h₂neḱ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to reach, to attain'

Ancestors

ynogh (Middle English)
genog (Old English)
*ganōgaz (Proto-Germanic)
*h₂eh₂nóḱe (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

kënaq (Albanian)
nok (Danish)
genoeg (Dutch)
genug (German)
nógur (Icelandic)
nancisci (Latin)
geneah (Old English)
eneuch (Scots)
nog (Swedish)
genôch (West Frisian)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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