Etymograph

English

chest

Chest comes from Middle English cheste ‘a large container’, and goes back to Ancient Greek κίστη.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEκίστηkístē‘chest’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcista‘chest’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kistu‘chest’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150ċest‘chest’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cheste‘a large container’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1879chest

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEκίστηkístē‘chest’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcista‘chest’
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kistu‘chest’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150ċest‘chest’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500cheste‘a large container’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1879chest

Earliest quotation: 1879, Richard Jefferies, London: Smith: “But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me…”

Linked words

through Latin cista ‘chest, box’

cistern, kist, 4 more

Another origin of chest

  1. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kaussāuncertain
  2. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEcaussauncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcausa‘reason, cause, case, dispute, reproach’uncertain
  4. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kausō‘dispute, litigation’uncertain
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150ċēas‘strife’uncertain
  6. Old English, derivedc. 450–1150ċēast‘strife, quarrel, quarrelling, contention, murmuring, sedition, scandal’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500chest
  8. Englishtodaychest

Today it means

noun A box, now usually a large strong box with a secure convex lid.

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

Etymograph / Ancient Greek κίστη / chest

Shirt and support for this word