English
cumulus
Cumulus comes from Latin cumulus ‘heap, pile’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcumulus‘heap, pile’
- Englishearliest quotation 1803cumulus
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcumulus‘heap, pile’
- Englishearliest quotation 1803cumulus
Earliest quotation: 1803, Luke Howard, Suspension: “[page 99] Cumulus. […] Convex or conical heaps, increasing…”.
The story
Sense 2 (‘type of cloud’) was coined by the British chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772–1864): see the 1803 quotation.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- ‘to swell’
church, jail, cave, cage, kirk, cavity, excavation, hound, cyst, gaol, excavate, cajole, cavil, caul, 41 more
Today it means
noun A heap or mound.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin cumulus / cumulus