Etymograph

English

labour

Labour comes from Middle English labor, from Old French labor and its source, Latin labor ‘work, toil’, of uncertain origin.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElabor
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400same form
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1719labour

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElabor
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400same form
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1719labour

Earliest quotation: 1719, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Cruso: “[…]So I ſet myſelf to enlarge my Cave and…”

Linked words

through Latin labor

collapse, collaboration, laboratory, elaborate, lava, lapse, laborious, labile, 10 more

Another origin of labour

  1. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCElabōsearlier origin unknown
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElabor‘labor, toil, work, exertion’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CElaborare‘to labor, strive, exert oneself, suffer, be in distress, (transitive) to work out’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400laborer‘to work’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500labouren
  6. Englishtodaylabour

Today it means

noun An effort expended on a particular task; toil, work.

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

Etymograph / Latin labor / labour

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