Etymograph

English

Percy

Percy comes from Norman Percy ‘a baronial surname’, and goes back to Latin Persius ‘a Gallo-Roman nomen gentile’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEPersius‘a Gallo-Roman nomen gentile’
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEPersiacum
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400Perci
  4. Normanc. 1066–presentPercy‘a baronial surname’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1597same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEPersius‘a Gallo-Roman nomen gentile’
  2. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEPersiacum
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400Perci
  4. Normanc. 1066–presentPercy‘a baronial surname’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1597same form

Earliest quotation: c. 1597, William Shakespeare, The History of Henrie the Fourth; […]: “Hot[spur]. My name is Harry Percy. / Pr[ince]. VVhy…”

The story

Proper noun senses 1 (surname) and 3 (place names) are derived from Norman Percy (‘a baronial surname’), from Percy-en-Auge (“a place in Pays d’Auge, Normandy, France”, literally “Percy in Auge”), from Old French Perci, from Late Latin Persiacum, from Latin Persius (‘a Gallo-Roman nomen gentile’), from Etruscan 𐌐𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (persu); further etymology uncertain, possibly from 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 (φersu, “mask”).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Proper noun sense 2 (given name) is either from the above, or is a clipping of Perc(ival) + -y (suffix forming familiar names). The common noun is derived from the proper noun. Sense 2 (‘penis’) is probably from the fact that Percy and penis begin with the same letter.

Every English word from Latin Persius

Today it means

name An English surname from Old French.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin Persius / Percy

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