English
corner
Corner comes from Anglo-Norman cornere, from Old French corne ‘corner, angle’, from Vulgar Latin *corna, from Latin cornū ‘horn, projecting point’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱerh₂-‘horn, head’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kornū‘horn’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcornū‘horn; projecting point’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*corna‘horn’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400corne‘corner, angle’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400cornere
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500corner‘a corner or angle’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ḱerh₂-‘horn, head’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kornū‘horn’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcornū‘horn; projecting point’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*corna‘horn’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400corne‘corner, angle’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400cornere
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500corner‘a corner or angle’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598same form
Earliest quotation: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “Why, that’s the lady: all the world desires her;…”
The story
From Middle English corner, from Anglo-Norman cornere (compare Old French cornier, corniere (‘corner’)), from Old French corne (“corner, angle”, literally “a horn, projecting point”), from Vulgar Latin *corna (‘horn’), from Latin cornua, plural of cornū (‘projecting point, end, horn’). The sense of "angle, corner" in Old French is not found in Latin or other Romance languages. It was possibly calqued from Frankish *hurnijā (‘corner, angle’), which is similar to, and derived from *hurn, the Frankish word for "horn".
Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂-
Today it means
noun The point where two converging lines meet; an angle, either external or internal.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- / corner