Etymograph

English

family

Family comes from Latin familia ‘household’, from Proto-Italic *fameliā ‘household’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do, put, place’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do, put, place’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fameliā‘household’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfamilia‘household’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500famylye
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1813family

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do, put, place’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fameliā‘household’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfamilia‘household’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500famylye
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1813family

Earliest quotation: 1813, Jane Austen, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton: “To Jane, he could be only a man whose…”

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-

Today it means

noun A group of people who are closely related to one another (by blood, marriage or adoption); kin; in particular, a set of parents and their children; an immediate family.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- / family

Shirt and support for this word