English
cortical
Cortical comes from Latin cortex ‘bark’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(s)kert- ‘to cut’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kert-‘to cut’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kort-ek-sreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcortex‘bark’
- Englishearliest quotation 2023cortical
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kert-‘to cut’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kort-ek-sreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcortex‘bark’
- Englishearliest quotation 2023cortical
Earliest quotation: 2023, Simon Mays, The Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Paleopathology: “An adult male skeleton from Wharram Percy showed fine-grained…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kort-ek-s
through Latin cortex ‘bark’
Today it means
adj Pertaining to the outer layer of an internal organ or body structure, such as the kidney or the brain.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)kert- / cortical