Etymograph

English

collateral

Collateral comes from Medieval Latin collaterālis, and goes back to Latin latus ‘side’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElatus‘side’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500collaterālis
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1606collateral

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElatus‘side’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500collaterālis
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1603–1606collateral

Earliest quotation: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of King Lear: “If by direct or by collateral hand They find…”

Equivalent to col- + lateral

Latin latus ‘the side or flank’

Latin laterālis ‘belonging to the side’

English lateral

The story

Recorded since c.1378, from Old French, from Medieval Latin collaterālis, from Latin col- (‘together with’) (a form of con-) + the stem of latus (‘side’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- ‘flat’

plane, flat, plate, plaza, platinum, piazza, plat, plantain, flan, plaice, 15 more

through Latin latus ‘side’

le, latitude, dilate, dilatation, 12 more

Today it means

adj Parallel, in the same vein, side by side.

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

Etymograph / Latin latus / collateral

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