Etymology
1. O.E.
gan "to go," from W.Gmc.
*gai-/*gæ- (cf. O.Fris.
gan, M.Du.
gaen, Ger.
gehen), from PIE
*ghei-, perhaps connected to Skt.
jihite "goes away," Gk.
kikhano "I reach, meet with," but there is not general agreement on cognates. The O.E. past tense was
eode, of uncertain origin but evidently once a different word (perhaps connected to Goth.
iddja); it was replaced 1400s by
went, formerly past tense of
wenden "to direct one's way" (see wend). In northern England and Scotland, however,
eode tended to be replaced by
gaed, a construction based on
go. In modern Eng., only
be and
go take their past tenses from entirely different verbs. The word in its various forms and combinations takes up 45 columns of close print in the O.E.D. The noun sense of "a try or turn at something" is from 1825; meaning "something that goes, a success" is from 1876. Verbal meaning "say" emerged 1960s in teen slang.
Going to "be about to" is from 1482.
Go for broke is from 1951, Amer.Eng. colloquial;
go down on "perform oral sex on" is from 1916.
That goes without saying (1878) translates Fr.
cela va sans dire. Phrase
on the go "in constant motion" is from 1843;
go-between is 1598;
go-getter is 1910, Amer.Eng., but
goer, with essentially the same meaning, is c.1378.
Goner "something dead or about to die" is first recorded 1850.
2. From Middle English gon, goon, from Old English gān (“to go”), from Proto-West Germanic *gān, from Proto-Germanic *gāną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”).
3. The inherited past tense form yode (compare Old English ēode) was replaced through suppletion in the 15th century by went, from Old English wendan (“to go, depart, wend”).
4. cognates and related terms
5. Cognate with Scots gae, gan, gang, ging, gyang (“to go”), Yola go, goe, goeth, gow (“to go”), West Frisian gean (“to go”), Alemannic German gaa, go (“to go, walk, step”), Bavarian geh (“to go”), Cimbrian ghéenan, gian (“to go”), Dutch gaan (“to go”), Dutch Low Saxon gan, gaon (“to go”), German gehen (“to go”), German Low German gahn (“to go”), Limburgish gaon, goëne (“to go”), Luxembourgish goen (“to go”), Vilamovian gejn, gyjn (“to go”), Yiddish גיין (geyn, “to go, walk”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish gå (“to go, walk”), Crimean Gothic geen (“to go”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌽 (gaggan, “to go”). Compare also Albanian ngah (“to run, drive, go”), Ancient Greek κιχάνω (kikhánō, “to meet with, arrive at”), Avestan 𐬰𐬀𐬰𐬁𐬨𐬌 (zazāmi), Sanskrit जहाति (jáhāti, “to shun, avoid, lay aside”). See: Middle English '
gon', Proto-Germanic '
*gāną', Old English '
wendan', Alemannic German '
gaa', Cimbrian 'ghéenan', Dutch '
gaan', German, old spelling '
gehen', Luxembourgish '
goen', Wymysorys '
gejn', Sanskrit '
जहाति'.
Verbs referencing "go"
Naija
go, Sranan
go, Tok Pisin go, German, old spelling
gehen, Norwegian
gå, Norwegian, nynorsk
gå, Swedish
gå, Alemannic German
gah, German, Pennsylvania
geh, Cimbrian gian, Sanskrit
जहाति, Cimbrian ghéenan.