English
opera
Opera comes from Italian opera ‘work’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ep-‘to work, toil, make’next step skipped: Latin opus
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEopera
- Italianc. 1300–presentopera‘work’
- Englishearliest quotation 1907opera
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃ep-‘to work, toil, make’next step skipped: Latin opus
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEopera
- Italianc. 1300–presentopera‘work’
- Englishearliest quotation 1907opera
Earliest quotation: 1907, Robert William Chambers, New York: “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- ‘to work, toil, make’
office, official, bus, copy, omnibus, copious, opus, officiate, opulence, omnivore, officiant, officious, 24 more
through Latin opera
cooperation, cooperate, ure, oeuvre, 11 more
through Italian opera ‘work’
Today it means
noun A theatrical work, combining drama, music, song and sometimes dance; usually, one sung-through, based on classical music and seen as more artistic and formalized than other forms of musical theater.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₃ep- / opera