English
local
Local comes from Late Latin locālis ‘belonging to a place’, and goes back to Old Latin stlocus.
- Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEstlocus
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElocus‘a place’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CElocālis‘belonging to a place’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500local
- Englishearliest quotation 1918same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEstlocus
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElocus‘a place’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CElocālis‘belonging to a place’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500local
- Englishearliest quotation 1918same form
Earliest quotation: 1918, William Babington Maxwell, Indianapolis: “Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.[…]Next…”
The story
The ring-theoretic senses derive from Krull, who first referred to Noetherian commutative rings with a unique maximal ideal as "Stellenring" (Stellen (‘place’) + ring) in 1938. The term was inspired by algebraic geometry, where local rings encode information about the behavior of curves (surfaces, etc.) at points; hence, describe "local" behavior.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *stel- ‘to put, place, locate’
stole, install, stool, stall, apostle, stalk, stale, epistle, stele, apostolate, stela, stell, stolid, 27 more
through Old Latin stlocus
allowance, milieu, allocate, collocation, 11 more
through Latin locus ‘a place’
allow, location, lieu, locate, locus, loco, locator, locative, 15 more
Today it means
adj From or in a nearby location.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old Latin stlocus / local