Words from Proto-Indo-European

Family

Languages that grew out of Proto-Indo-European: Proto-Celtic, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Italic.

The words, A to Z

• acre

  A unit of land that still carries the memory of an open, unfenced field.

• adroit

  Being skillful, this word suggests, is really just a matter of being pointed the right way.

• aerodrome

  Before planes had airports, they had a word borrowed from horse racing.

• agent

  The person who gets things done was, grammatically speaking, born mid-action.

• ale

  This drink's name may hide an ancient word for bitterness itself.

• ape

  A word so old, nobody's fully sure which continent it came from.

• apocalypse

  A word for the end of everything once just meant taking the lid off.

• apple

  The world's most famous forbidden fruit didn't earn its name from the Bible at all — that was a Latin pun.

• argon

  This gas got its name for doing absolutely nothing — chemically speaking.

• arid

  This word for parched land grew out of a verb that simply meant 'to be dry.'

• armor

  The gear that protects a body traces back to the joints that hold one together.

• avatar

  Before it meant a little icon standing in for you online, it meant a god stepping down to earth.

• band

  The thing holding your favorite musicians together shares a root with the thing holding your shoelaces together.

• bandana

  The cloth you knot around your neck carries the idea of knotting itself, right in its name.

• barrel

  A round wooden container that may have started out as something you simply carried.

• bear

  The animal's name may actually be a nervous euphemism — a way of not saying its real, older name out loud.

• bee

  This tiny buzzing word has been almost exactly the same sound for thousands of years.

• beer

  The word for the drink you might toast with was once just the name for the yeast that fermented it.

• bench

  A humble piece of furniture that's been holding people up since Old English times.

• bid

  This little word carries two ghosts inside it — one that begs and one that offers.

• bone

  The hard framework inside you shares an old root with the idea of going straight.

• bourbon

  A whiskey named for a place named for a dynasty named for a god of bubbling water.

• brain

  The word for the thing you're thinking with has been sitting quietly in Germanic mouths for over a thousand years.

• bread

  The staple food on every table got its name from a word that once meant nothing more than a broken crumb.

• bridge

  A word for spanning gaps that itself has roots stretching back to a Proto-Indo-European word for wooden decking.

• brief

  This word for 'short' has been shrinking things down since before Rome was writing them.

• broker

  The person who arranges your deal was once just the person who used to trade.

• bug

  Before it crawled through code, this word crawled through nightmares as a goblin haunting the dark.

• bunker

  A word for underground safety once meant nothing more menacing than a seat with storage underneath.

• bureaucracy

  The word for red tape actually starts with a reddish cloth on a desk.

• burgeon

  The word for sudden, thriving growth once meant nothing grander than a little bud pushing itself into the light.

• cadence

  The rhythm of your speech shares a secret history with gravity itself.

• carbon

  The chemist who named this element was borrowing a word people had used for charred wood since Roman times.

• cash

  The word for hard money once meant nothing more than the box it was kept in.

• cataract

  A single word for both a roaring waterfall and a clouded eye — both born from the idea of something crashing down and blocking the way.

• cheek

  The part of your face that started out just meaning your jaw.

• cloud

  The word for the sky's soft drifting shapes started out describing something as solid as a boulder.

• cod

  A small, humble word that once meant nothing more than a bag — and somehow ended up naming a fish, a pillow, and a fool.

• cogwheel

  A simple compound that literally names the toothed wheel doing the work.

• coleslaw

  This crunchy side dish carries a name that's just cabbage and salad stacked together.

• colonel

  The rank whose spelling and sound have never quite agreed with each other.

• colt

  A young horse's name once described a shape, not a species.

• comma

  That small curved pause in a sentence was once a piece cut away.

• corn

  This word for a hard little seed once meant almost any grain at all, before one country decided it meant just one.

• cost

  Before it meant what you owe, it meant what stands firm beside something else.

• crab

  That sideways scuttle across the sand has been scratching at English for over a thousand years.

• croissant

  That crescent-shaped pastry is literally named for the act of growing.

• currency

  Money that moves is, at its root, just money that runs.

• cursor

  That little blinking line on your screen was once a word for a runner sprinting on Roman roads.

• dart

  A tiny weapon named for the leap it makes through the air.

• debris

  The scattered leftovers of something that used to hold together.

• debut

  A first appearance on stage traces back to the simple act of aiming for a target.

• December

  The last month of the year still carries the number ten in its bones.

• deer

  The word for this graceful woodland animal once meant simply 'animal' — any animal at all.

• dementia

  This word literally means being led away from your own mind.

• dictator

  The word for an absolute ruler was once just a job title for someone whose job was to talk.

• dignity

  The word for self-worth once meant something closer to being deemed worth taking seriously.

• diva

  Before she was a temperamental star, she was a goddess — literally.

• dough

  The slang for money in your pocket comes from the same root as the stuff rising in your bread bowl.

• doughnut

  A pastry named for two things it once literally was — dough, shaped like a nut.

• drab

  A word for dullness that started life woven into cloth.

• dragon

  The fire-breathing beast in our stories was named for its stare, not its scales.

• drawer

  The box you slide open for socks got its name from the simple act of pulling.

• dusk

  That soft, smoky hour before full dark started out as a word for the color of soot itself.

• eager

  A word that once meant sharp as vinegar now describes a sharp appetite for something.

• earth

  The ground beneath your feet carries a name older than plowing itself.

• earthquake

  Sometimes the ground just needs to shiver, and English gave it a plain, honest name for that.

• encyclopedia

  A book that once promised to walk you all the way around the circle of human knowledge.

• energy

  The word for what makes things move is, at its root, just a word for being 'at work.'

• equinox

  There's one word for the moment day and night hang perfectly balanced on a scale.

• exercise

  A word built from 'out' plus a root meaning to keep something shut in — training as a kind of controlled release.

• exhaust

  To use something up completely, you first have to draw it all the way out.

• fan

  The thing you wave to cool your face once helped separate wheat from chaff.

• fee

  Long before you paid one, this word grazed in a field.

• fender

  Something that fends off harm turns out to just be a job title in disguise.

• ferry

  The word for a boat that shuttles you across water was once just a verb meaning to carry.

• fertilizer

  The 'one who does it' ending turns a verb for making things fruitful into the name of the stuff that does the work.

• fervent

  This word for burning enthusiasm once described something literally boiling.

• finch

  A tiny songbird whose name may echo the sound of its own chirp.

• fog

  The mist rolling over a field may owe its name to the tall grass that once blurred that same landscape.

• fox

  This clever little word may once have simply meant 'the tailed one.'

• freight

  A word that once meant simply 'what a ship is fully stocked with' now carries the whole weight of the world's cargo.

• frigid

  This word for bitter cold was built from Latin's own way of saying 'to be cold.'

• fuchsia

  This vivid pink-purple color is named after a man, not a mood or a flower itself.

• furnace

  This word for a fire-chamber has been quietly glowing since a Proto-Indo-European root for 'warm' first split off a suffix.

• future

  The word for what hasn't happened yet is secretly just an irregular form of the verb "to be."

• glove

  This word for hand covering literally means something like 'the thing that goes with the palm.'

• gnocchi

  That little potato dumpling shares a secret bond with your knuckles.

• goose

  A humble barnyard bird carries one of the oldest sound-shapes in the Indo-European family.

• graffiti

  The scrawls on a wall trace back to the simple act of scratching a mark into something.

• ham

  The cut of meat on your sandwich once meant nothing more than the crook of your leg.

• happiness

  This word for deep contentment started out as a roll of the dice.

• hare

  This quick-footed animal may owe its name to the color of its coat, not its speed.

• hat

  The thing on your head may descend from an ancient root meaning simply 'to guard.'

• heath

  A stretch of open, untamed land that gave its name to the wild shrub growing across it.

• heron

  This tall wading bird was named for the sound it makes, not the way it looks.

• hip

  The word for the joint you swivel on has roots that literally mean 'to bend.'

• hollow

  The empty space inside something once shared a root with the idea of concealment.

• hooligan

  Behind this word for a rowdy troublemaker may lurk a whole Irish family name.

• hornet

  This stinging insect's name traces back to a word for the thing on its head that isn't actually a horn at all.

• horse

  The animal we've ridden for millennia carries a name that literally means "runner."

• hound

  The word that once meant every dog alive, now saved for the ones bred to chase.

• hover

  That trembling stillness in the air — a bird stalled between beats — carries a memory of lifting.

• hut

  A tiny shelter's name traces back to the idea of covering yourself from the world.

• iceberg

  English didn't invent this word so much as borrow half of it and translate the other half.

• immune

  To be immune is, literally, to be let off the hook.

• infer

  To infer is to carry a conclusion in from the evidence, rather than have it handed to you outright.

• instant

  The word for 'right now' was once about standing your ground, not standing still.

• iron

  A metal so old its name may still carry the memory of blood.

• January

  This month is named for a god with two faces, one looking back and one looking ahead.

• javelin

  This throwing spear's name traces back to a word for a simple forked branch.

• jellyfish

  This ocean drifter takes half its name from something cold enough to freeze.

• Jupiter

  The king of the Roman gods carries a name that's really just a title: Dad, of the sky.

• justice

  The word for fairness itself was once tangled up with sacred formulas.

• kilt

  That pleated garment gets its name from the act of hitching fabric up, not from any Scottish loom.

• knife

  This everyday cutting tool got its name from a pinch, not a slice.

• latch

  The little mechanism that catches a door was once a verb meaning to grab hold of something with your whole hand.

• laughter

  That burst of sound you can't fake convincingly started out as a word for shouting.

• leaf

  The thin green thing on a tree carries an old memory of being cut away.

• leap

  This word for jumping once just meant putting one foot in front of the other.

• lexicon

  A word for the whole stock of words was itself once shorthand for a book.

• limbo

  There's a reason being stuck between two states feels like standing at an edge, not falling into a void.

• linguistics

  A tongue-rooted word built to name the study of tongues themselves.

• liver

  The body's great chemical factory carries a name that once meant something altogether stickier.

• lock

  The thing that keeps your door shut and the curl in your hair share the same ancient root — one about bending, the other about closing.

• lodge

  A cozy cabin's name once meant nothing more than a leafy shelter.

• louse

  A tiny, unwelcome word that's been crawling through Germanic languages for thousands of years.

• love

  The tennis score of nothing and the deepest human attachment share the same four letters, though not, it turns out, the same story.

• magpie

  This bird's name is basically an old joke about a gossipy woman.

• marine

  A word that carries the sea in its bones, even when it's just describing a boat store.

• marsh

  A soggy patch of land that's basically calling itself 'sea-ish.'

• meal

  Before it meant food on a plate, this word simply meant a fixed point in time.

• meek

  Being soft-natured wasn't always about timidity — it started out describing texture, not temperament.

• meridian

  The line that splits the day at its highest, brightest point.

• mince

  To turn something into smaller and smaller pieces, whether it's meat or your words.

• miracle

  The word for something astonishing began as the simple act of staring in wonder.

• mirror

  The glass you check yourself in was named, deep down, for wonder — not reflection.

• mist

  That soft grey haze hanging over a field has been called almost the same thing for over a thousand years.

• mitten

  That cozy hand-warmer might owe its name to either a cat or the concept of 'half.'

• month

  Every time you flip the calendar, you're quietly counting moons.

• moor

  A word for wild, open land that once meant something like 'sea' in disguise.

• moth

  The word for the moon's paper-winged cousin has been quietly gnawing at fabric and language alike for over a thousand years.

• motivate

  Behind every push to act hides an old word for simply moving.

• mould

  One little word secretly holds three unrelated pasts — a shape, a soft growth, and the earth itself.

• mouth

  The word you're reading with right now traces back to the simple act of chewing.

• mud

  The soft, wet ground under your boots carries a name that may stretch back to an ancient word for simply being damp.

• mushroom

  This fungus got its name from the damp, mossy ground it liked to grow on.

• nail

  Your fingertips carry a word that stretches back through Old English straight to a Proto-Indo-European root for the hard tip of a finger or claw.

• nave

  This little word hides two totally unrelated pasts under one spelling.

• nectar

  The drink of gods was named not for its sweetness, but for what it defeated.

• nocturnal

  The hours between dusk and dawn have their own name buried inside this word.

• nose

  The part of your face that got its name from a word so old it's practically prehistoric.

• oat

  The grain in your morning bowl once shared its name with pus and poison.

• October

  The tenth month still carries the number eight in its name.

• opium

  This word for a poppy's dried sap traces back to a single ancient idea: plant juice.

• overwhelm

  A word for being flooded by something bigger than you can hold, built from 'over' plus a much older word for capsizing.

• owl

  This bird's name is basically a tiny echo of its own cry, shrunk down over centuries.

• ox

  A word for a beast of burden that also moonlights as a chemistry-lab shorthand.

• pail

  A humble bucket whose name may trace back to a peg or a pan, depending on which story you believe.

• pain

  The word for hurt started out as the price you owed for a wrong.

• peace

  The calm we call peace was once just a deal that had been nailed down tight.

• platinum

  A gleaming metal named as if it were silver's poorer cousin.

• pocket

  The little bag sewn into your clothes started out as a tiny swelling word for something that puffs up.

• port

  The word for a harbor and the word for a ship's left side share the same old root for 'crossing.'

• propeller

  The thing that pushes a ship or plane forward is, quite literally, named for its job of pushing.

• pulley

  A little wheel that quietly took its name from the idea of spinning, not pulling.

• pulse

  The beat in your wrist and the beans in your soup share a surprising ancestor.

• quiche

  A savory egg pie that shares a family tree with cake, and, thanks to a sitcom, once meant something else entirely.

• raincoat

  Some words are just two useful things zipped together, and this is one of them.

• rake

  The garden tool with a row of teeth shares its deep roots with the idea of a road or a path.

• rash

  The word for acting too fast may come from a root that literally means "to run."

• reef

  A ridge that once meant your ribs before it meant the ocean's.

• reliquary

  A container built for the things we cannot bear to let go of.

• republic

  A word that quietly names government as everyone's business, not one person's.

• resistor

  Something that pushes back gets a name built right into its grammar.

• reverence

  This word carries the weight of standing quietly before something too large to touch.

• rhythm

  The word for a steady beat once meant nothing more than water finding its way downhill.

• rib

  The curve of your chest bone owes its name to an ancient word for arching cover.

• rifleman

  The soldier's title is really a tool welded to a person.

• rotund

  This word for a rounded shape rolled straight in from the wheel of a Roman cart.

• rubric

  Before it meant a grading chart, this word meant a color.

• rudder

  The thing that steers your boat was once just a word for the oar that did the job.

• saga

  Before it meant a sprawling epic, this word simply meant 'something said.'

• sap

  The word for tree juice once meant simply "taste" — and it still drips with that ancient sense.

• scurvy

  A word for flaky, scabby skin ended up naming a disease that sailors dreaded.

• season

  Before it meant summer or winter, this word meant the right moment to plant something in the ground.

• seed

  The word for what you plant carries, underneath it, the ancient act of sowing itself.

• sentence

  A grammatical unit that once meant simply what someone thought, not what they said.

• shareholder

  Someone who holds a piece of something that's been cut up for others too.

• shelf

  A flat board with a name that once meant something you'd cut or carve, not build.

• shield

  A piece of wood or metal that keeps you whole traces back to a word for cutting things apart.

• shirt

  The garment on your back was once just anything short enough to be cut off.

• sidewalk

  Sometimes a word is exactly as literal as it looks, and there's a quiet satisfaction in that.

• sieve

  This kitchen tool's name once meant simply 'to let things run through.'

• sin

  The word for wrongdoing once meant the opposite — being caught telling the truth.

• sincere

  A word that sounds like it's about wax but is actually about growing something whole, together.

• sinew

  The tough cord that connects muscle to bone shares its root with the very word for nerve.

• sluggish

  This word for moving like a slow, heavy creature is built quite literally out of one.

• smuggle

  There's a reason this word for sneaking goods feels like it's slipping past you as you say it.

• snow

  The word for the white stuff falling from the sky has been drifting through Germanic languages for thousands of years, barely changing shape.

• solar

  Every time you call something solar, you're quietly invoking the sun's oldest name.

• sorrow

  A word for grief that once meant simply keeping watch over a worry.

• sow

  This barnyard word for a female pig may share deep roots with the very word "swine."

• spectrum

  This word for a range of colors or possibilities started out meaning nothing more solid than a ghostly appearance.

• spell

  The word for magic words and the word for arranging letters both grew from the same old habit of telling a tale.

• spirit

  The word for what animates you started out as nothing more than your breath.

• spoon

  Before it scooped soup, this word meant a sliver of wood split from a log.

• sprint

  That sudden burst of speed has roots in an old word for flinching.

• stanza

  A poem's paragraph was once just a place to stop and stand.

• steel

  This tough metal's name comes from an old Germanic word that simply meant 'staying firm.'

• stellar

  Every time you call something out of this world, you're quietly borrowing the sky's oldest name for itself.

• street

  Every road you call a street was, at its root, just something that got flattened out.

• stucco

  A wall finish whose name once meant nothing fancier than 'a piece' or 'a fragment.'

• summer

  The word for the warmest season may once have simply meant 'half the year.'

• swallow

  The bird and the gulp share a spelling but not a single drop of ancestry.

• swan

  The elegant white bird's name is actually a description of its voice, not its looks.

• swine

  A word that's carried the pigsty into the language of insults for over a thousand years.

• teach

  To teach someone is, at its root, simply to show them something.

• thesis

  A word that once described the dip in your voice now describes the weight of your argument.

• thimble

  The little metal cap on your sewing table is, quite literally, a tiny house for your thumb.

• thistle

  This prickly weed's name comes from the same ancient root as the word for jabbing something sharp.

• thorn

  A tiny word for a sharp point carries a much older idea of stiffness itself.

• thrush

  A small speckled songbird lent its name to two very different things, and nobody's quite sure why the second one borrowed it.

• thunder

  The booming sky-sound that also gave a Norse god his name.

• tie

  A simple loop of cord carries a much older pull inside it — the urge to draw things together.

• tomorrow

  The day that hasn't come yet is, at its root, just another word for morning.

• tool

  The word for the thing in your hand once meant the act of getting ready to use it.

• torpedo

  Before it was a weapon, this word named a fish that could stop you cold with a jolt.

• tourist

  Someone who goes around — literally, since the root of this word once meant a turn on a lathe.

• tusk

  That long, curving tooth an elephant or walrus flaunts started out as just a plain old word for tooth.

• twig

  A tiny branch that quietly carries the ancient number two inside it.

• vine

  The plant that gave wine its name is the same word that climbs your trellis.

• vocal

  This word for anything voiced traces straight back to the sound of a voice itself.

• vodka

  Russia's signature spirit is, at its linguistic root, just a little bit of water.

• vulgar

  Before it meant crude, this word simply meant belonging to everyone.

• wage

  Your paycheck's ancestor was really just a promise someone had to keep.

• waltz

  A dance whose name is really just an old word for spinning around.

• warehouse

  Sometimes the most useful words are the ones built from the simplest possible parts.

• weapon

  A word so old that even its own root is a mystery.

• wine

  This word for fermented grape drink has been passed hand to hand across Europe for thousands of years without changing its core sound.

• wire

  Before it carried electricity, this word carried the idea of a twist.

• witch

  A word for those who set things apart may itself have been set apart, born from a root meaning to consecrate or separate.

• wool

  This soft word has been keeping people warm in language for thousands of years, all the way back to a root shared with hair itself.

• wrestle

  To grapple with someone is, at its root, to twist them.

• yard

  The patch of ground behind your house was once, at its root, simply something fenced in.

• zealous

  A word that burns with the same ancient fire as jealousy, just pointed at devotion instead of suspicion.