hatian

Old English hatian meant 'to hate,' and it came from Proto-Germanic *hatōjan, which traced back to the PIE root *keh₂d- meaning 'sorrow' or 'hatred.' But this same root took a different path in Greek. The Greek word kēdos meant 'care,' 'grief,' and 'concern for the dead' — the obligations of mourning. Hate and care were, at the root, the same intense attention.

The word stayed remarkably stable through Germanic history. Gothic hatis, Old High German hazzēn, Old Norse hata — they all meant the same thing. Unlike many emotion words, hate did not soften or drift. It arrived in English meaning hatred and it still means hatred. The consonants barely changed over two millennia.

What did change was the word's intensity level. In Old English, hatian could describe anything from mild dislike to murderous loathing. The Beowulf poet used it for the monster Grendel's hatred of human joy. By Middle English, the word had narrowed upward — you no longer hated turnips. You disliked them. Hate was reserved for the serious.

The PIE connection to Greek kēdos never made it into folk consciousness, but linguists identified it in the 19th century. August Fick noted the parallel in his 1870 comparative dictionary. The link is not metaphorical — hate and care both describe a state of intense emotional fixation on someone else. The direction of that fixation is the only difference.