ache
The origin and history of ache.
Etymology
From Old English acan (the verb) and æce (the noun), going back to a very old Germanic root meaning "to hurt." The two spellings merged over time, partly because an 18th-century dictionary writer mistakenly linked the word to a similar-sounding Greek word for pain.
Class of 1700
ache first entered the language around 1700. Other words from the same year:
See the full Class of 1700 →