Etymograph

English

column

Column comes from Latin columna ‘a column, pillar, post’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kelH- ‘to rise, be tall’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kelH-‘to rise, be tall’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kolamenreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEculmen‘a pillar, top, crown, summit’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolumna‘a column, pillar, post’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400columne
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1892column

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kelH-‘to rise, be tall’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kolamenreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEculmen‘a pillar, top, crown, summit’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolumna‘a column, pillar, post’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400columne
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1892column

Earliest quotation: 1892, James Yoxall: “The desert storm was riding in its strength; the…”

The story

From Middle English columne, columpne, columpe, borrowed from Old French columne, from Latin columna (‘a column, pillar, post’), originally a collateral form of columen, contraction culmen (‘a pillar, top, crown, summit’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kelH- ‘to rise, be tall’

hill, excellent, excellence, hale, excellency, excelsior, culminate, holm, 9 more

through Latin culmen ‘a pillar, top, crown, summit’

culmination, 7 more

through Latin columna ‘a column, pillar, post’

colonel, 4 more

through Old French columne

colonnade, 1 more

Today it means

noun A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kelH- / column

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