English
display
Display comes from Middle English displayen, from Anglo-Norman despleier, from Medieval Latin displicō ‘to unfold’, from dis- + plicō ‘to fold’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleḱ-‘to fold, plait’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplicōas plicāre‘to fold’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500displicō‘to unfold, display’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400despleier
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500displayen
- Englishearliest quotation 1590display
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleḱ-‘to fold, plait’uncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplicōas plicāre‘to fold’
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500displicō‘to unfold, display’
- Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400despleier
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500displayen
- Englishearliest quotation 1590display
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto V: “The wearie Traueiler, wandring that way, / Therein did…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- ‘to plait, to weave’
complex, fiasco, replication, flax, flack, plexus, flagon, 34 more
through Latin plicō ‘to fold’
apply, employment, reply, explicit, employ, exploitation, exploit, imply, deploy, replica, implicit, complication, complicate, accomplice, inexplicable, ploy, complicity, ply, implicate, supple, pliable, supplication, triplicate, explication, pliant, 22 more
Today it means
noun A show or spectacle.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pleḱ- / display