RECURSIVE ANCESTOR EXPLORER
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WORD → PARENT → PARENT → UNKNOWNGO TO
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Do not stop at the first ancestor. Follow every cited route—through compounds, reconstructions, and disagreements—until human knowledge actually stops.
START / NODE 904Old High GermanOld High German
wīb
An Old High German word occurring in woman and wife expressions; it continues into Middle High German wīp and modern German Weib, whose usage has changed sharply.
“The modern stigma of German Weib cannot simply be projected backward onto Old High German wīb, and the older word still has no securely reconstructed parent.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
EVERY REVIEWED PARENT, NOT ONE EDITORIAL PATH
FOLLOW EVERY BRANCH.
Compound components and competing routes stay separate. Every arrow retains its sound change, semantic change, scholar, confidence, and exact sources.
01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Old High Germanwīb
woman; wife in recorded expressions
↑GO DEEPER
Beyond secure reconstruction · before the reviewed Old High German wīb horizonUNKNOWNNo securely reconstructed direct ancestor is currently promoted beyond Old High German wīb.
THE TRAIL ENDS ON THIS BRANCH.
Old English wīf meets this dossier at a cited cognate horizon rather than through an invented parent.
- SOUND CHANGE
- No reconstructed direct parent is promoted beyond attested Old High German wīb.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The historical woman and wife word reaches an unresolved origin rather than a fabricated proto-form.
- SCHOLAR
- SET-U editorial boundary · Duden Editors
- CONFIDENCE
- boundary — Duden explicitly labels the origin unclear and offers two possibilities only as perhaps.
*
THE TRAIL ENDS HERE.
Every reviewed parent route has reached either an explicit evidence boundary or a node with no securely promoted ancestor. Unknown is a result, not a blank to fill.
THE ASTERISK IS A PROMISE
RECONSTRUCTION IS
NOT INSCRIPTION.
Crossing into a starred form changes the evidence class. The interface marks that crossing, preserves confidence, and never manufactures the next root to make the picture look complete.