English
gold
Gold comes from Middle English gold ‘gold (metal)’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- ‘green, yellow’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰelh₃-‘green, yellow’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰl̥h₃tóm‘gold’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gulþą‘gold’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*golþreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150gold‘gold’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘gold’
- Englishearliest quotation 1897same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰelh₃-‘green, yellow’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰl̥h₃tóm‘gold’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*gulþą‘gold’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*golþreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150gold‘gold’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘gold’
- Englishearliest quotation 1897same form
Earliest quotation: 1897, Winston Churchill: “Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for…”
The story
Germanic cognates include Scots gowd, Dutch goud, German Gold, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk gull, Danish and Swedish guld, and cognates from other Indo-European languages include Latvian zelts, Russian зо́лото (zóloto), Persian زرد (zard, “yellow, golden”), Sanskrit हिरण्य (hiraṇya).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- ‘green, yellow’
fell, yellow, chlorine, gall, felon, gullible, cholera, glib, yolk, choline, zloty, chlorella, gilder, 27 more
through Proto-Germanic *gulþą
Today it means
noun (uncountable) A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- / gold