die

Die is a Norse word, and it filled a gap that superstition had opened. Old English had plenty of ways to say it — steorfan, which survives as starve, sweltan, which survives as swelter, and the plain phrase wesan dead — but seems to have avoided a direct verb. A form like diegan may have existed, but it appears in none of the surviving texts.

Then Norse deyja arrived with the Danish settlement, and English took it. Languages usually do not borrow words for the central human experiences; die words are the exception, because people keep hiding them behind euphemisms out of superstition and then need a new plain word. The Norse layer in English is full of this kind of thing: short, blunt, essential vocabulary — take, want, knife, law, they, them — that arrived not because English lacked the concept but because two closely related languages were being spoken in the same villages.

Raw Etymonline excerpt

die
(v.)
mid-12c.,
dien, deighen
, of sentient beings, "to cease to live," possibly from Old Danish
døja
or Old Norse
deyja
"to die, pass away," both from Proto-Germanic
*dawjan
(source also of Old Frisian
deja
"to kill," Old Saxon
doian
, Old High German
touwen
, Gothic
diwans
"mortal"), from PIE root
*dheu-
(3) "to pass away, die, become senseless" (source also of Old Irish
dith
"end, death," Old Church Slavonic
daviti
, Russian
davit'
"to choke, suffer").
It has been speculated that Old English had
*diegan
, from the same source, but it is not in any of the surviving texts and the preferred words were
steorfan
(see
starve
),
sweltan
(see
swelter
),
wesan dead
("become dead"), also
forðgan
and other euphemisms.
Languages usually don't borrow words from abroad for central life experiences, but "die" words are an exception; they often are hidden or changed euphemistically out of superstitious dread. A Dutch euphemism translates as "to give the pipe to Maarten."
Regularly spelled
dege
through 15c., and still pronounced "dee" by some in Lancashire and Scotland. Of plants, "become devitalized, wither," late 14c.; in a general sense of "come to an end" from mid-13c. Meaning "be consumed with a great longing or yearning" (as in
dying to go
) is colloquial, from 1709. Used figuratively (of sounds, etc.) from 1580s; to
die away
"diminish gradually" is from 1670s. To
die down
"subside" is by 1834. Related:
Died
;
dies
.
To
die out
"become extinct" is from 1865. To
die game
"preserve a bold, resolute, and defiant spirit to the end" (especially of one facing the gallows) is from 1793. Phrase
never say die
"don't give up or in" is by 1822; the earliest contexts are in sailors' jargon.
"Never look so cloudy about it messmate," the latter continued in an unmoved tone—"Cheer up man, the rope is not twisted for your neck yet. Jack's alive; who's for a row? Never say die while there's a shot in the locker. Whup;" [Gerald Griffin, "Card Drawing," 1842]
also from mid-12c.

die
(n.)
"small cube marked on each face with spots numbering from one to six, used in gaming," early 14c. (as a plural, late 14c. as a singular), from Old French
de
"die, dice," which is of uncertain origin. Common Romanic (cognates: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian
dado
, Provençal
dat
, Catalan
dau
), perhaps from Latin
datum
"given," past participle of
dare
"to give" (from PIE root
*do-
"to give"), which, in addition to "give," had a secondary sense of "to play" (as a chess piece); or else the notion is "what is given" (by chance or Fortune).
The numbers on the opposite sides always add up to seven; otherwise there is no uniformity to their arrangement. Sense of "engraved stamping block or tool used for stamping a softer material" is from 1690s. Perhaps so called because they often were used in pairs (to impress on both sides, as of a coin).
Figurative phrase
the die is cast
"the decisive stem is taken" is from 1630s, in reference to the throw of the dice. The expression translates Latin
alea iacta est
(or
iacta alea est
), famously uttered by Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon.
also from early 14c.

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