From Old English 'wē', from PIE *wéy — one of the oldest and most stable words in English. Old English had a three-way system: 'ic' (I alone), 'wit' (we two, the dual), and 'wē' (we three or more). The dual 'wit' died by 1200, leaving the modern I/we pair.
The first-person plural pronoun, used by a speaker to refer to themselves and one or more other people.
From Old English 'wē', from Proto-Germanic *wīz (we), from Proto-Indo-European *wéy (we). This is one of the most ancient and stable words in English, with cognates in virtually every Indo-European language. Old English preserved a three-way number distinction: 'ic' (I, singular), 'wit' (we two, dual), and 'wē' (we, plural of three or more). The dual form 'wit' was lost by the 13th century, collapsing a three-way distinction into the modern two-way 'I' vs 'we'. Key roots: *wéy (Proto-Indo-European: "we (first
Old English had a special pronoun 'wit' meaning 'we two' (the dual number) — distinct from 'wē' (we, three or more). Gothic, Sanskrit, and Ancient Greek also had dual pronouns. English lost this by the 1200s, but the concept lives on in languages like Slovenian, which still distinguishes 'midva' (we two) from 'mi' (we, many).