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What is the origin of “yes”?

We often think that some words in a language like “yes” are so basic that they must have been around since the first words were spoken! 

But, this isn’t the case… If there’s one constant with languages, it’s that they inevitably, invariably, change!

The origin of “yes” is sort of a mystery, but one source says that it was a stronger form of “yea” that was often used in oaths. 

It may be a contraction of the Old English “gea swa” (yea, (it is) so), but where does “gea” come from? Well, it comes from the main Proto-Indo-European demonstrative relative pronoun (who, that, whichever, whatever, or which) 

As in: 

“The word that we’re learning about today is “yes”.  (relative pronoun)

Not:

“That is a word”. (regular demonstrative)

Other descendants of this proto-form include the Latin “iam” meaning “already”, the Lithuanian “jaũ” meaning “already” and “jei” meaning “if”, the base Sanskrit relative pronoun “यद्“, and the Greek relative pronoun “ὅς“. 

It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to see a word like “already” become a word like “yes”: 

Did you wash the dishes? Already!

For the etymology of another basic English word, check out this article about the origin of the word “not!