English
caliber
Caliber comes from French calibre ‘bore of a gun, size, capacity, also weight’, and goes back to Italian calibro.
- Italianc. 1300–presentcalibro‘caliber, bore’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcalibre‘bore of a gun, size, capacity, also weight’
- Englishearliest quotation 1960caliber
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Italianc. 1300–presentcalibro‘caliber, bore’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcalibre‘bore of a gun, size, capacity, also weight’
- Englishearliest quotation 1960caliber
Earliest quotation: 1960, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, London: Herbert Jenkins: “A snort of about the calibre of an explosion…”
Every English word from Italian calibro
Today it means
noun Diameter of the bore of a firearm, typically measured between opposite lands.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Italian calibro / caliber