The verb 'work' originates from the Old English 'wyrcan' or 'weorcan', meaning to perform, make, or act. Its deeper roots trace back to the Proto-Germanic 'wurkijaną', which itself is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root 'werg-', meaning 'to do' or 'to make'. This ancient root is the source of a wide array of words across Indo-European languages related to action and creation. The modern verb 'work' retains this core sense of engaging in physical or mental activity. The form 'worked' is the regular, productive inflection, where the Germanic '-ed' suffix is appended to signal past action, following the common morphological pattern for English verbs.

The word 'worked' is the inflected form of the simplex verb 'work'. The suffix '-ed' is a productive inflectional morpheme of Germanic origin, used to form the past tense and past participle of regular verbs.