O.E.
gan "to go," from W.Gmc.
*gai-/*gæ- (cf. O.Fris.
gan, M.Du.
gaen, Ger.
gehen), from PIE
*ghei-, perhaps connected to Skt.
jihite "goes away," Gk.
kikhano "I reach, meet with," but there is not general agreement on cognates. The O.E. past tense was
eode, of uncertain origin but evidently once a different word (perhaps connected to Goth.
iddja); it was replaced 1400s by
went, formerly past tense of
wenden "to direct one's way" (see
wend). In northern England and Scotland, however,
eode tended to be replaced by
gaed, a construction based on
go. In modern Eng., only
be and
go take their past tenses from entirely different verbs. The word in its various forms and combinations takes up 45 columns of close print in the O.E.D. The noun sense of "a try or turn at something" is from 1825; meaning "something that goes, a success" is from 1876. Verbal meaning "say" emerged 1960s in teen slang.
Going to "be about to" is from 1482.
Go for broke is from 1951, Amer.Eng. colloquial;
go down on "perform oral sex on" is from 1916.
That goes without saying (1878) translates Fr.
cela va sans dire. Phrase
on the go "in constant motion" is from 1843;
go-between is 1598;
go-getter is 1910, Amer.Eng., but
goer, with essentially the same meaning, is c.1378.
Goner "something dead or about to die" is first recorded 1850.
[goh] 
