Whereas the strong verbs are the oldest group of verbs in Germanic, originating in Indo-European, the weak verbs arose as an innovation in proto-Germanic. Originally the weak verbs consisted of new verbs coined from pre-existing nouns (for example the noun "name" was turned into the verb "to name"), or coined from strong verbs to express the sense of causing the action denoted by that strong verb (for example the strong verb "to rise" was turned into the weak verb "to raise").