Etymograph

English

heap

Heap comes from Middle English hepe ‘crowd, multitude, assembly’, from Proto-West Germanic *haup ‘heap, pile’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *koupos ‘hill’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*koupos‘hill’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*haupaz‘heap, pile’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*haup‘heap, pile’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hēap
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hepe‘crowd, multitude, assembly’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1622heap

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*koupos‘hill’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*haupaz‘heap, pile’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*haup‘heap, pile’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hēap
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hepe‘crowd, multitude, assembly’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1622heap

Earliest quotation: 1622, Francis Bacon, An Advertisement Touching an Holy Warre. […]: “A Heap of Vassals, and Slaues: […] A People…”

Linked words

through Middle English hepe ‘crowd, multitude, assembly’

hip

Today it means

noun A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *koupos / heap

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