Etymograph

English

gracile

Gracile comes from Middle French gracil, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kerḱ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kerḱ-root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600gracil
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1701gracile

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kerḱ-root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600gracil
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1701gracile

Earliest quotation: 1701, Abraham de la Pryme, Concerning Trees Found under Ground in Hatfield Chace. Thorn: “[T]hoſe Trees that are called Firs by the Vulgar…”

The story

The sense “graceful or gracefully slender” was apparently influenced by the non-cognate word grace. The English word is cognate with Italian gracile (‘delicate, frail; slender, thin’), Portuguese grácil, Spanish grácil (‘graceful; delicate; slender’), and a doublet of gracilis.

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

Today it means

adj Lean, slender, thin.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kerḱ- / gracile

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