wolle (Middle English)
Where does "wolle" come from?
The Middle English noun 'wolle' meaning wool was inherited from Old English 'wull'[1]. This earlier form traces back through Proto-West Germanic '*wullu' and Proto-Germanic '*wullō' to the Proto-Indo-European root '*h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂'[1], which combined '*h₂welh₁-' meaning hair or wool with the suffix '*-néh₂'[3]. The final vowel in the Middle English term was generalised from the oblique cases of Old English[1].
Open questions
- The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European forms and their morphological makeup are theoretical constructs based on comparative linguistics. [1] [3] [4] [5]
Full etymology tree
- wolle (Middle English), 'wool (coat of sheep), especially when used to make fabric'
- inherited wull (Old English), 'wool'
- inherited *wullu (Proto-West Germanic), 'wool'
- inherited *wullō (Proto-Germanic), 'wool'
- inherited *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂ (Proto-Indo-European), 'wool'
- inherited *wullō (Proto-Germanic), 'wool'
- inherited *wullu (Proto-West Germanic), 'wool'
- inherited wull (Old English), 'wool'
Ancestors
- *h₂welh₁- (Proto-Indo-European)
- wull (Old English)
- *wullu (Proto-West Germanic)
- *wullō (Proto-Germanic)
- *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂ (Proto-Indo-European)
Descendants and derived words
- wool (English)
- oo (Scots)
- oo (Scots)
- wow (Scots)
- wow (Scots)
- wow (Scots)
- wow (Scots)
- wow (Scots)
- wul (Yola)
- wul (Yola)
Sources
- wolle (Middle English) - Wiktionary
- wull (Old English) - Wiktionary
- h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂ (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
- wullō (Proto-Germanic) - Wiktionary
- h₂welh₁- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
- wullu (Proto-West Germanic) - Wiktionary
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris