Etymograph

English

argillous

Argillous comes from Latin argillosus ‘clayey, argillous, full or abounding in clay’, and goes back to argilla.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEargilla‘white clay, potter's clay, argil’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEargillosus‘clayey, argillous, full or abounding in clay’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1650argillous

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEargilla‘white clay, potter's clay, argil’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEargillosus‘clayey, argillous, full or abounding in clay’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1650argillous

Earliest quotation: 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […]: “the colour of the sand and argillous earth at…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ- ‘white’

argument, argue, argentine, argent, arguable, 53 more

Today it means

adj clayey; argillaceous

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

Etymograph / Latin argilla / argillous

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