each

The word 'each' originates from the Old English 'ǣlc', a contraction of the phrase 'ā ge līc', which literally meant 'ever alike' or 'ever each'. This phrase combined 'ā' (meaning 'ever, always') and 'ge-' (a collective or distributive prefix) with 'līc' (meaning 'body, form, like'). Over time, this phrase condensed into a single word, shifting from the sense of 'ever alike' to specifically denoting every individual member of a group considered separately. Its journey from a descriptive Old English phrase to a concise modern determiner and pronoun illustrates a common pattern of grammaticalization in the history of English.

The word 'each' is a simplex word derived from Old English. It does not contain separable morphemes in its modern English form.