Etymograph

English

cult

Cult comes from Latin cultus ‘care, adoration’, from colō ‘cultivate’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- ‘to move, to turn (around), to revolve around,…’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷelh₁-‘to move, to turn (around), to revolve around, and therefore to sojourn, to dwell’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷélh₁etireconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kʷelō‘to inhabit’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolō‘cultivate’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcultus‘care, adoration’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentculte
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1913cult

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷelh₁-‘to move, to turn (around), to revolve around, and therefore to sojourn, to dwell’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷélh₁etireconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kʷelō‘to inhabit’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcolō‘cultivate’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcultus‘care, adoration’
  6. Frenchc. 1600–presentculte
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1913cult

Earliest quotation: 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia: “When frying sausages," remarked Cripps, who seemed to regard…”

Linked words

through Latin colō ‘cultivate’

colony, agriculture, aquaculture, subculture, coulee, monoculture, kultur, 70 more

Today it means

noun The veneration, devotion, and religious rites given to a deity (especially in a historical polytheistic context), or (in a Christian context) to a saint; a subset of worship.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- / cult

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