English
graptolite
Graptolite comes from Ancient Greek γραπτός ‘painted, marked with letters’, from γράφω ‘to scratch, cut into’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gerbʰ-‘to carve’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*grə́pʰō‘to scratch, cut or carve into’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράφωgráphō‘to scratch, cut into’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEγραπτόςgraptós‘painted, marked with letters’
- Englishearliest quotation 2004graptolite
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gerbʰ-‘to carve’reconstructed
- Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*grə́pʰō‘to scratch, cut or carve into’reconstructed
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEγράφωgráphō‘to scratch, cut into’
- Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEγραπτόςgraptós‘painted, marked with letters’
- Englishearliest quotation 2004graptolite
Earliest quotation: 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth: “The samples were black shale, and on the shales…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- ‘to carve’
grammar, crawl, crab, carve, crawfish, astrophotography, 79 more
through Proto-Hellenic *grə́pʰō ‘to scratch, cut or carve into’
photography, graffiti, graft, demography, grimoire, ultrasonography, epigraph, sonography, 73 more
through Ancient Greek γράφω ‘to scratch, cut into’
photo, cinema, graphic, graphite, graphene, epigram, 32 more
Today it means
noun Any of a group of extinct aquatic colonial invertebrates, of the class Graptolithina, from the Cambrian and Carboniferous periods.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- / graptolite