English
frequency
Frequency comes from Latin frequentia ‘crowd, multitude, throng’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrekʷ- ‘to condense’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰrekʷ-‘to condense’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*frekʷentsreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrequens‘crowded, crammed, packed’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrequentia‘crowd, multitude, throng’
- Englishearliest quotation 1958frequency
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰrekʷ-‘to condense’uncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*frekʷentsreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrequens‘crowded, crammed, packed’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfrequentia‘crowd, multitude, throng’
- Englishearliest quotation 1958frequency
Earliest quotation: 1958, 'Borderer', Ten Years of British Railways: “[…] the Plan incorporates in proper combination every available…”
Equivalent to frequent + -cy
Proto-Italic *frekʷents
Latin frequens ‘crowded, crammed, frequent, repeated, etc’
Old French frequent
English frequent
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰrekʷ- ‘to condense’
Today it means
noun The rate of occurrence of anything; the relationship between incidence and time period.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰrekʷ- / frequency