English
cavern
Cavern comes from Latin caverna ‘hollow, cavity, cave’, and goes back to Proto-Italic *kawos.
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kawosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcavus‘hollow, excavated, concave’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcaverna‘hollow, cavity, cave’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400caverne
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600caverne
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500caverne‘cavern, cave’
- Englishearliest quotation 1797cavern
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kawosreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcavus‘hollow, excavated, concave’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcaverna‘hollow, cavity, cave’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400caverne
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600caverne
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500caverne‘cavern, cave’
- Englishearliest quotation 1797cavern
Earliest quotation: 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- ‘to swell’
church, kirk, hound, cyst, cumulus, cajole, 39 more
through Proto-Italic *kawos
through Latin cavus ‘hollow, excavated, concave’
jail, cage, cavity, excavation, gaol, concave, excavate, caul, cavil, 15 more
Today it means
noun A large cave.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Italic *kawos / cavern