Etymograph

English

puerile

Puerile comes from Latin puerīlis ‘childish’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- ‘few, little’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂w-‘few, little’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*ph₂werosreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*puwerosreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpuer‘child, boy’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEpuerīlis‘childish’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1853puerile

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peh₂w-‘few, little’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*ph₂werosreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*puwerosreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpuer‘child, boy’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEpuerīlis‘childish’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1853puerile

Earliest quotation: 1853, Karl Marx, Forced Emigration: “But can there be anything more puerile, more short-sighted,…”

Equivalent to puer + -ile

French puer ‘to stink, to smell (bad)’

English puer

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- ‘few, little’

few, poor, pose, fewer, pause, puppy, puppet, pupil, pave, pediatrics, pedagogy, filly, menopausal, paucity, orthopedics, posada, pupa, 31 more

Today it means

adj Childish; trifling; silly.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- / puerile

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