Etymograph

English

margin

Margin comes from Latin margō ‘edge, brink, border, margin’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mórǵs‘boundary, border’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmargō‘edge, brink, border, margin’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmarginem
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500margyn‘the edge of a page’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1848margin

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*mórǵs‘boundary, border’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmargō‘edge, brink, border, margin’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEmarginem
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500margyn‘the edge of a page’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1848margin

Earliest quotation: 1848, William Armstrong: “The purchaser then hands over this margin to the…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs ‘boundary, border’

march, mark, 8 more

through Latin margō ‘edge, brink, border, margin’

marge, margo, 5 more

Today it means

noun The edge of the paper, typically left blank when printing but sometimes used for annotations etc.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs / margin

Shirt and support for this word