English
ceiling
Ceiling comes from Middle English celing ‘paneling’, from Old French celer ‘to conceal’, and ultimately from Latin cēlō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēlōas cēlāre‘hide, conceal’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400celer‘to conceal’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500celing‘paneling’
- Englishearliest quotation 1956ceiling
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcēlōas cēlāre‘hide, conceal’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400celer‘to conceal’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500celing‘paneling’
- Englishearliest quotation 1956ceiling
Earliest quotation: 1956, W. J. Alcock, On the Footplate of the "Elizabethan": “[…] and only at Barnet did Tappin give Empire…”
Equivalent to ceil + -ing
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- ‘to cover’
hell, color, hall, hole, cell, holder, hull, helmet, hollow, halt, helm, holden, uphold, conceal, clandestine, sari, sala, declension, tricolour, cilia, haugh, recline, declination, seel, occultation, halberd, hele, holing, 36 more
through Latin cēlō ‘hide, conceal’
Today it means
noun The overhead closure of a room.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin cēlō / ceiling