English
echo
Echo comes from Latin ēchō ‘repercussion of sound, echo’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sweh₂gʰ-‘to sound’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*wākʰā́reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἠχήēkhḗ‘sound’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἠχώēkhṓ
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēchō‘repercussion of sound, echo’
- Medieval Latinmodernēccō
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500eccho
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593echo
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sweh₂gʰ-‘to sound’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*wākʰā́reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEἠχήēkhḗ‘sound’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἠχώēkhṓ
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEēchō‘repercussion of sound, echo’
- Medieval Latinmodernēccō
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500eccho
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1588–1593echo
Earliest quotation: c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus: “The babbling echo mocks the hounds.”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ- ‘to sound’
Today it means
noun A reflected sound that is heard again by its initial observer.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sweh₂gʰ- / echo