Etymograph

English

hill

Hill comes from Old English hyll, from Proto-Germanic *hulliz ‘hill’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥Hnís ‘top, hill, rock’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kl̥Hnís‘top, hill, rock’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hulliz‘hill’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hulli‘hill’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hyll‘hill’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hil‘hill’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1795hill

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kl̥Hnís‘top, hill, rock’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*hulliz‘hill’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hulli‘hill’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150hyll‘hill’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hil‘hill’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1795hill

Earliest quotation: 1795, Gammer Gurton's Garland, The Nursery Parnassus: “Jack and Gill Went up the hill, To fetch…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *kelH- ‘to rise’

excellent, colonel, column, excellence, hale, culmination, excellency, holm, excelsior, culminate, colonnade, columella, 8 more

Today it means

noun An elevated landmass smaller than a mountain.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kl̥Hnís / hill

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